There is a smidgen of truth in that thing about how long the person has to wait to see the cardiologist. That is, there have been some such cases. In most cases treatment is prompt and it's good. It all depends, I guess, on exactly which community you're living in and how overloaded the local hospitals are with patients. I had a friend who was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and they dealt with that immediately. He was sent straight to hospital, put under observation for a few days, then operated on. So in his case the medical system moved very fast. Sometimes one hears of a case where treatment is delayed and it gets into the papers here.

So what I am saying is that no system is absolutely perfect, and I wouldn't claim that the Canadian health care system is perfect either, but in most cases it's very good. It remains the most popular public institution in Canada with massively high public support in national polls. That shows that it's doing its job pretty well.

The main point is that your medical treatment here is free after taxes (with the exception of dental work). My yearly taxes for that privilege are less than $1,000 and that's typical. I call that a very good deal. I only wish they'd extend it to dental as well, because that's a major expense for most people.

It seems reasonable that a society would want its people to receive medical care at as little cost as possible. After all, you need a healthy populace to have a healthy society, don't you? It can only benefit society as a whole if people are not driven into bankruptcy by necessary medical care.

You're quite right that what made America great was its people. The same is true of Canada. I find that most people are basically good in their nature, and that seems to be true everywhere I go.