What Someone Who has Universal Healthcare Thinks About the Repeal of Obamacare


I have some thoughts about what's happening with health care in the United States. In my latest column for HealthCentral, I share these opinions:

"Last spring, I spent 34 days in the hospital. Three weeks of this was in the ICU, receiving complex high-level care and treatment. For a month after I returned home, a visiting nurse came to take care of the tracheostomy stoma in my throat.

I paid for none of this. My friends in the United States who have gone through long hospitalizations or who are receiving complex care are drowning in medical bills. I live in Canada, a country that has universal healthcare, also known as a single-payer system. Our government uses the taxes we pay every year to fund healthcare for everyone who lives here. It is an integral, almost sacred, part of Canadian society. Regardless of political beliefs, everyone in Canada, both citizens and politicians, believe that our healthcare system is the only way to go.

When the U.S. Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed, I rejoiced with those I knew who could now see a doctor and get their conditions treated. But now, I despair as I see Republicans go back again and again to dismantle and repeal a law that made such a huge change for so many."

You can read more about what I, as someone with universal healthcare, think about the repeal of Obamacare on HealthCentral.

Comments

Anonymous said…
EXCELLENT article! Thank you for writing about this! I live in America and I can't even describe how incredibly angry I am about the attempts to destroy healthcare. I've never been involved with politics but now I feel forced to contact my senators and demand they fight for me. I've contacted them twice now, and would not be surprised if I have to do it again and again. I have very seriously considered moving to another country just so I can have guaranteed healthcare. People like you and I NEVER ASKED TO BE SICK. So it is unbelievably frustrating that, in America, we are blamed for rising costs etc. and therefore we should carry the burden. It is burden enough to be incurably ill. I constantly wonder what would happen if the Republicans suddenly fell ill and were now subject to the horrible restrictions they placed upon the ill - would they change their minds? Would universal healthcare be an option then? Or if their children or spouses were suddenly disabled for life - would it matter more at that point? UGH.
12:35 AM
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