Why Did the Canadian Cross the Border?

by Paul Jacob

Why did the Ukrainian Canadian cross the border into the U.S.?

A decade or more ago, a young teenage Ukrainian visited Minnesota under a charity program. He had a bad heart, and needed help. An American family housed and fed the lad and his mother. Many people from around the world come to America to get free care just like his. He would have died without it.

The lad eventually emigrated to Canada. He's grown up now, and has a job and a girlfriend and is, in general, living the Canadian Dream. What could be better? A good job, a nice house, and free health care?

Except that the care in Canada isn't quite worth the price.

The young man's heart has been giving him problems again, recently. He went to the "free" Canadian doctor. The doctor put him on a list. It would be six months before Canadian doctors would apply the treatment.

So our Ukrainian Canadian visited America again, this time with money he'd earned. He called the hospital he had visited before, made an a appointment, and got in for a corrective treatment within a week. He was in and out in two visits. And his heart appears, now, to be in much better condition.

That's the great thing about the free Canadian health care system: it's best part is the freer-in-a-different-sense health care south of the border. Which is, believe it or not, the American health care system.

Paul Jacob's "Common Sense" is published by the Sam Adams Alliance. Their website can be visited at www.samadamsalliance.org.