Health care from both sides of border

I am a dual U.S./Canadian citizen (yes, we do exist). When we first moved to the U.S. from Canada, my wife had a lump discovered in her breast. She has breast cancer running in her family. We were still on Canadian insurance, but they "stiffed" us for the bill, so we ended up paying the whole thing.

More importantly, from the time they found it, to the time it was biopsied and a final report was done (thankfully, it was benign) was about 30 hours. Now, that very same year, my wife's best friend - exact same age - also had the exact same issue. Of course, she was still residing in Canada. Moreover, her father was a doctor. From the time she got the initial warming, to the biopsy, and final report completed, it was three months.

Thankfully, hers was benign too - but imagine if both were malignant. How much more could something metastasize in three months? I have multiple other personal stories of similar situations, and stories of not being able to find doctors, massive wait times, are legion,

Finally, rich people in Canada already do have a two-tier system, as they have the money to go somewhere else to get what they need done medically.

I have lived under both systems, and I find the U.S. system much more effective and efficient, and therefore ultimately more compassionate and human, which is what it should be all about. Even more disturbing is that the U.S. Congress has its own special health care (and a social security plan that isn't bankrupt); i.e., they don't have to live under the financial mess their own laws have made. This, to me, is the most telling of all, and very unsettling.

Jim Vanne

Aurora