I'm so very lucky to be Canadian - From the Cluttered Desk with Keith Roulston

It was something of a shock to see results of some survey that suggested about 20 per cent of Canadians aren’t upset about the prospect of our joining the U.S., as President Donald Trump suggests. But then so few of us realize the advantages that we have, being Canadian.

 

For instance, I recently travelled to Kitchener to meet with a cataract surgeon. There was no mention of any cost to me. Then I saw a story on television about a woman whose doctor sent her to a private cataract clinic where she received a bill for $8,000. She had no idea that she could have gone to a no-cost public clinic as an amazing number of my acquaintances have. Since the clinic I visited in Kitchener was an unexpectedly modern facility where they even undertake surgeries, they obviously get considerable support from the provincial government - all of it unknown to me.

 

We’ve had a number of similar surprises in recent years as I went through three years of health setbacks, one after another. First, it was a heart-valve replacement in a London hospital, the result of damage to my heart when I had rheumatic fever when I was young; a disease nobody’s heard of these days as medical science has virtually wiped it out. 

 

The operation was delayed for a few months because, I learned later, my surgeon was in California negotiating with a hospital there for a job. After he left to take that job, the surgeon I was referred to put me at the top of his list. I chose to get a permanent, artificial heart valve, but didn’t realize at the time it meant I had to take warfarin to prevent blood clots that could lead to further problems. That means I need to get monthly blood tests to make sure my blood doesn’t get too thin or thick. Those tests, too, are free in Canada.

 

I was only part way through my recovery from that operation when it was discovered I had prostate cancer. My situation was unique enough that I qualified for research by a London specialist. I received treatments five days a week for several weeks. Because I lived at a distance, I was kept, five days a week, in a hotel the hospital had rented. All this and there was no cost to me under my Canadian medical coverage.

 

I was recovering from all this when one day I suffered a stroke. I spent several days in Stratford Hospital and luckily had a light stroke, so I was able to go home. No cost.

 

My driver’s licence was suspended until it was proven I was safe to drive. I had a team of physiotherapists visit me for several weeks to rebuild my strength, all at no cost to me. After a few months my family doctor certified I was safe to drive again.
After all that, things were quiet again for several years until the cataract problem. And then a blood test showed my prostate problem turned up again. Between the time I wrote this and the time you read it, I’ll have visited my prostate specialist and he 
will have injected me with a drug to keep my prostate under control. I’ll have picked that drug up from my pharmacist. This 
drug costs hundreds, but I’ll pay a mere fraction of the cost. Your provincial government will pay the major portion.

 

As a senior, I pay $100 a year for drugs, plus the prescription fees. All this because I live in Canada.

 

I hear all the time about people who live in the U.S. who are impoverished  because they need such and such operation, have to stay in hospital, or have to take drugs and aren’t covered by health insurance. Even those who do have coverage often find their insurer has discovered some ingenious way to deny coverage.     If I were American, as President Trump wishes, I’d probably be broke instead of having managed to have accumulated savings. Don’t worry, our governments aren’t magicians who give without receiving. When we die, the federal and provincial governments will get first crack at about half our savings. That’s on top of the regular sales tax and income tax we pay yearly.

 

Our federal government does freeload on the U.S., spending less than we should on defence costs, and even less than the increased amount President Trump has suggested his allies should spend.

 

In general, however, I feel so grateful to live on the Canadian side of the border and have the benefits that being Canadian means, like our healthcare and the recent addition of dental care the NDP forced on the federal Liberals, I’m not thrilled by Premier Doug Ford’s attempts to water down our medical care by supporting commercial clinics that duplicate services available, free, from government-supported professionals.

 

I feel so blessed to have the medical care we have, unknown as it was in my childhood before the government supported healthcare. The last thing I want is an American system.