Amor de Cosmos

A reminder to our American friends who are saddened that ‘single payer’ health care didn’t pass the House today, only an expansion of existing systems, don’t panic.

Canada didn’t get it in one fell swoop either. It was an incremental build from the 1940s (when it worked just like the US) to 1966 (when it was reorganised to ensure every legal resident was covered for hospitals and doctors).

In between, accidents were covered first, later all hospital stays, later still, doctors appointments.

And while abortions are now, rightly, covered, there were not originally. But once the system is in place and running, medical decisions cease to determined in the legislature and instead are determined by the doctor and the patient.

If you are looking to emulate the Canadian system then, do what our forefathers-and-mothers did: take what you can get, and build on that.

For extra credit, here’s a New Yorker article on how the UK and France developed their own systems.