There's quite an upset back in Canada on the recent advertisements of Shona Holmes, who has made a commercial for an American lobby group in which she claims that she had a brain tumour that threatened her life, that her treatment was delayed in Ontario, and that she had to pay for her own treatment by going to the Mayo clinic in the States. There is plenty of reason to wonder whether her story has not been so exaggerated that the story is essentially false (see Canadian blogger Creative Revolution on the groups who are funding Ms. Holmes other anti-medicare legal cases.
What I want to say now is that every system has cracks, and Ms. Holmes may have fallen through one. But having lived in Canada most of my life and now being in the States, I think I should assure my American neighbours that in my life I've never heard of anything like what Ms. Holmes reports. Yes, people have to wait sometimes for non-life threatening treatment. Sometimes they are suffering to various degrees during the wait. But life-threatening conditions gets quick attention. And most importantly -- everyone in Canada has access. No one goes untreated because they're uninsured.
4 years ago
