COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

I disagree with Sharon Weisman’s July 27 letter, “Single-payer is the way to go.” She is right when she says Canadians have a longer life expectancy — about one year longer. She is right about the infant mortality rate, which is slightly lower in Canada, however, so is their birth rate, and some believe that is connected to poor prenatal care.

If she is right about the 45 million people without health care, how many millions are afraid to come forward for health care due to illegal immigration problems? I should mention that we have several million people not paying taxes for the same reason.

The National Center for Policy analysis, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, has on its website the following graphic numbers: The breast cancer mortality rate in the United Kingdom is 88% higher than here; the prostate cancer mortality in the U.K. is 604% higher than the U.S., and Canada’s is 184% higher.

Then we have 89% of middle-aged women in the U.S. who have had mammograms, but in Canada only 72%. Among men in the U.S., 54% have had a prostate-specific antigen test, while only 16% have had the procedure in Canada. Thirty percent of Americans have had a colonoscopy, but in Canada, that figure drops to just 5%.

Right now in Canada, more than 800,000 people are waiting for some type of specialist or procedure. In Great Britain, more than 1.8 million are waiting for hospital or outpatient admission.

I think that people dying while waiting for their government to allow them medical care is barbaric. In Canada and Great Britain, the elderly suffer the most from single-payer health care. Keep that in mind, because we all get older hopefully.

 FRED ENSLOW is a La Crescenta resident.