Health Care

In a few days, my partner Tamara is going to be sworn in as a permanent resident in Canada.  On that day she will receive the right to work, to own property, to run a business ... and to bring herself to any doctor in the country receiving patients and receive free healthcare.

Yesterday, because I have been unsatisfied with my doctor over the last six months, due to changes in his attention to his practice, I made a phone call.  My former doctor's office is 700 steps (according to my phone) from my front door.  I called a different doctor's office, in another direction, that is 1,100 steps from my front door.  I made an appointment yesterday for a "meet and greet" at 10:50 AM this morning.  I arrived and waited 2 minutes in the doctor's office.  I waited 1 minute in the examination room.  By 11:05, I had a new doctor, he had complete knowledge of my conditions from the national computer health system, he had addressed the finger I cut a piece out of on Saturday, and I had a prescription in my pocket for the ramapril I've been taking the last five months to lower my blood pressure.

People in America talk about a national single-payer health care system meaning, (a) they won't be allowed to choose their doctor; and (b) it will mean long wait times.

Bullshit.

It stuns me to think that, despite the 15 months of lawyers and jumping through hoops with Immigration Canada, and the money that involved, that suddenly my American partner is able to go to a doctor of her choice, have her eyes examined properly, have an appointment made to address her cataracts, then to have the procedure, with the participation of nurses, doctors, accountants, administrators and so on, without insurance and without it costing any money, simply because now she is not only an American but is also a Canadian resident.  And, point in fact, not a citizen.  She is not a citizen of this country.  Yet because I am a citizen, and because I have stood up for her, my country has agreed that I'm valuable enough to be personally serviced in this way.  My partner, my country says, deserves to be treated for free because she is my partner.  And that is the only reason my country needs.

During my university years, I took several political science courses at the U of C, particularly those relating to the history of Canadian politics and political theory.  One prof I had, Dr. Jacobson, was fond of disparaging John F. Kennedy, whom he saw as a doofus ~ not because he was a Democrat but because ~ as Dr. Jacobson would stress ~ he didn't understand the first thing about what a government is for.  In his opinion, Kennedy was famous for saying the stupidest thing ever said about government:

"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you ~ ask what you can do for your country.  My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

Kennedy in the above pretends to speak for the country; but in reality, he's only able to speak for the country's government.  Americans are fond of saying that the president is the leader of the country, but in reality, the people of the country do not take their orders from the president, or from any other member of the government.  The government establishes laws and the people choose whether or not to abide by those laws.  But no one above the level of a police officer orders you to follow a law; and the officer does not give a good-goddamn what you can do for him.

We elect governments and create a bureaucracy in order that the government will serve US, and OUR needs, not the government's.  Deciding what needs are to be served is and ought to be above the government's pay grade.  When I, as a citizen, cannot go to my government and say, "I love this woman, and I expect you to keep her healthy so that we may be happy and live a long life together," then my government gives no more of a good-goddamn about me than does a policeman pushing me back behind a barricade or ordering me to the side of the road.  When I cannot make a reasonable request of my government and expect to receive it, then I am a slave.

If my American partner was living in America right now, that's what she would be.  But I fell in love with her, and brought her here ... and though I did it all wrong, and feared what my country might say about it, I've learned to my pleasure that, in fact, my country is here to serve me.  Dr. Jacobson was right.

When your American government tells you that you're only entitled to live when you give money to a private corporation, who will then decide whether or not you're healthy enough to insure ... when your American government tells you that you're entitled only to go to certain hospitals according to the private insurance you've had to buy ... and when you're told by your American government that the value of your life, and the life of your partner, and the lives of your children, is subject to the decisions of corporations and hospitals who are motivated by money, and not by your personal well-being, then you are a slave.

And when others rise up, and say, "Let's not be slaves, like other countries, who do not ask their people to subject themselves to the dictates of privately-driven profit," and still others make up lies about not being able to choose your doctor or about how long you'll have to wait before you receive care, and you do not see this as a scheme to ensure that you remain a slave, then you are not only a slave, but you are a fool also.

I, with Tamara, feel sorry for you.