Opinion: Canadians know their healthcare isn’t perfect, but they would never trade their system for America’s

To the editor: Thanks to David Lazarus for framing the healthcare issue the way he did. (“Miss USA spoke for many Americans when she said healthcare isn’t a right,” May 19)

In my view, the major failure of President Obama and the Democrats in 2009 was that they did not frame or discuss health insurance reform as a human rights issue but rather got bogged down playing defense against Republican canards like socialism and death panels.

I’m a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. Canada’s single-payer system isn’t perfect, but I can say that the stress experienced by the cancer survivor in Lazarus’ column who had to file for bankruptcy would never have happened in Canada. While Canadians might complain from time to time, they would not trade their system for the one in the United States.

I have a sense that American attitudes are shifting on healthcare. Ironically, it may be the Republicans who push Americans to finally embrace a single-payer system.

Nickie Bonner, Porter Ranch

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To the editor: A 25-year-old beauty queen asked on stage whether she thinks healthcare is a right or a privilege should not be expected to reply in a few words to such a complex question.

Unlike other rights — voting rights, the right to assembly, the right to a trial decided by a jury of your peers — medical care is provided only by a licensed person who is doing this as his or her way of making a living. This makes healthcare a commodity that no one can be forced to provide for free.

Anyone who thinks that a physician is obligated to provide someone with the “right” to healthcare is wrong.

Rachel Robinson, Encino

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To the editor: Is healthcare a right or a privilege? Is a medical emergency an act of fate or an act of God? Do poor life choices result in poor health?

The most important question is, can our legislators really rationalize stripping millions of people of their insurance and still sleep soundly at night?

Wayne Via, Dana Point

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