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Health care system cannot be based on luck

Posted 2/23/17

To the Editor: Just after Christmas we traveled to Ottawa to visit some family friends. Some years ago one of them told us that it was America's responsibility to elect a President with the greatest …

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Health care system cannot be based on luck

Posted

To the Editor:

Just after Christmas we traveled to Ottawa to visit some family friends. Some years ago one of them told us that it was America's responsibility to elect a President with the greatest entertainment value...so we gave them George Bush and we all had a good laugh.

This year, our Canadian friends are not laughing. Whoa, they say! Time out! This isn't funny!

Conversations took us to all of the amazing parts of our recent election and eventually got around to health care. Canadians have plenty to say about their country's healthcare system, it's pros and cons, and they all have a tale of getting sick while visiting the states and rushing back home for treatment.

However when we told them what it costs to insure a family of four in New York State...they were dumbstruck, unable to wrap their heads around spending monthly an amount that would buy a car or rent a home in Canada.

My own approach to the problem was to go without health insurance of any kind for twenty years. I was really lucky. I never got sick, and only injured myself a dozen times.

I recognize that most people aren't as lucky as me, and know for a fact that few of our neighbors are as lucky as me. We can't run a health care system based on luck.

So if we kill Obamacare, will we kill our neighbors?

Michael Greer

Potsdam