{"id":2238,"date":"2009-08-07T09:56:32","date_gmt":"2009-08-07T17:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=2238"},"modified":"2009-08-07T09:56:32","modified_gmt":"2009-08-07T17:56:32","slug":"lets-help-americans-get-their-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/lets-help-americans-get-their-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s help Americans get their health care"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/object><\/p>\n

One of the people in this video<\/a>, Kathryn, is a friend of mine. \u00a0Have a gander at what she is saying, which is that due to a preexisting medical condition in her young son, there is no way she ever return to live in the US, because his condition would bankrupt her.<\/p>\n

I travel and work a lot in the US and two things always stand out to me about the lack of public health care in the US. \u00a0First, many people I know have been kept from doing truly interesting work because they have had to remain slaves to a job they hate only for the benefits. \u00a0To be able to go out on your own and make creative contributions to the world often means leaving behind a health care package. \u00a0It is a life decision and one which is tantamount to playing dice with your life. \u00a0When I left my government job in 1999 to start my company, I had nothing to worry about. \u00a0With the exception of things like glasses and dentistry, I didn’t miss my health benefits at all, and this was a package from a unionized federal government job.<\/p>\n

Second, I have never understood the argument that somehow single payer health care is unAmerican or that it restricts your choice of doctors. \u00a0Listen to Kat’s story above. \u00a0I have never been restricted by anyone in receiving medical advice. \u00a0I can switch doctors at will, limited only by how many patients each has in his or her practice. \u00a0In my own case, I have been hospitalized twice for surgery and seizures as a kid. \u00a0Two members of my family have been to the emergency room on multiple occaisions for accidents, and several extended family members have had cancer, heart disease and other serious life threatening illnesses. \u00a0Several of my friends have had rare and dangerous health conditions and only one of them chose to go to the US for his treatment to see the world’s only specialist in a very particular type of brain surgery. \u00a0In every case, the only plastic card that was ever produced was a CareCard.<\/p>\n

In short, although our health care system has many flaws, and we could all find stories to show how it fails people from time to time, it works. \u00a0We are free here to see any doctor we wish, no one lacks health care, you are never asked to pay FOR CARE before receiving it, and no one sends you a bill. \u00a0We pay a little more than $100 a month for our family of four for premiums, but if I couldn’t afford that, it would be free. \u00a0We pay higher taxes, but most Canadians would say that of all the things we are taxed on, health care is the one we most appreciate. \u00a0Most politicians run on a health and education platform. \u00a0These things are sacred cows.<\/p>\n

So here is my suggestion. \u00a0There is so much good about public health care, and so many lies distributed in the US about our system here, that I propose that we Canadians help out our American friends by making ourselves available to answer questions. \u00a0If you want to find out what it is REALLY like living with a publicly funded health care system, drop me an email (chris at chriscorrigan.com) and I will answer you questions. \u00a0If you are a Canadian who would like to share your story, leave your contact info in the comments. \u00a0If you are an American with a question, leave it in the comments. \u00a0I promise to tell you exactly what my experience is.<\/p>\n

Instead of getting the story from pundits and PR firms, just send me an email. \u00a0Let’s talk instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the people in this video, Kathryn, is a friend of mine. \u00a0Have a gander at what she is saying, which is that due to a preexisting medical condition in her young son, there is no way she ever return to live in the US, because his condition would bankrupt her. I travel and work a lot in the US and two things always stand out to me about the lack of public health care in the US. \u00a0First, many people I know have been kept from doing truly interesting work because they have had to remain slaves to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collaboration"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piBp1-A6","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2238"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2240,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238\/revisions\/2240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}