Canuck prof's inspiring op-ed: Canada’s universal health-care system makes us live democratically

[snagglepuss]

Several years ago Prof Arthur Haberman was diagnosed with prostate cancer. His cure came from a series of radiation treatments, five days a week over a period of eight weeks. This piece is about what he learnt in the waiting room.

snip


Who were we in this waiting area in Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto? There were two farmers from northern Ontario, a Bay Street lawyer, a young woman studying anthropology at a local university, a professor of history, a saleswoman, an officer of a big bank, a retired carpenter, and a teacher. And others. And sometimes the ill person was accompanied by one or two family members.


It is said that death is the great equalizer. Well, it can be said that a brush with death can make us all behave like citizens in a democracy. Status meant nothing in this waiting room. Colour, age, gender, they were hardly noticed. We all believed that we were getting excellent, compassionate care. We responded to one another in humane and even tender relationships, thrown together arbitrarily by our universal health-care system.


It didn’t need to be said. We were all getting the same care, whatever our fortunes or status. We never discussed it, but there was tacit agreement that this was a good thing. We responded to one another as human beings brought together in unfortunate circumstances. In most of our lives we would never have met one another at all, but this became an opportunity to learn about our fellow citizens and to get out of our daily boxes.


There is something that political philosophers — those like Tocqueville and Mill in the 19th century — have come to call living democratically. By this it is meant that voting is but a small part of what being in a democracy is about. It also includes volunteering in small ways to make our communities better, participating in decisions about what happens to your town or your neighbourhood, judging your fellow citizens by the quality of their character and not by the size of their homes or wealth, and treating all as equals.





http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/05/02/canadas_universal_healthcare_system_makes_us_live_democratically.html

[SalviaBlue]

1. K&R

[hunter]

2. Let me be the first to recommend this!

Historically here in California (and much of the USA I'd guess) we'd have three tiers of hospitals in every large community. There was the hospital that treated the white well insured people, the hospital that treated the insured working class (often Kaiser), and the hospital that treated everyone else.

Sadly, not much has changed today except that the country club hospitals don't overtly exclude people who are not white and also accept a limited number of patients they know can't pay.

A fourth tier of medical services is also expanding -- these are the prison hospitals.

What's interesting is that the outcomes one might expect at any of these hospitals was often random. A working class hospital, or even a county hospital often had better outcomes than the country club hospital because they were concentrating on getting the job done and paying much less attention to the latest fashions in expensive technologies, surgeries, or pharmaceuticals.

The major attraction of the country club hospitals was that a racist white person wouldn't ever end up sharing a room with a "colored" person.

[hfojvt]

3. in most small towns

there is only one hospital

which probably means if the richer people get really sick, they will fly somewhere else for treatment.