Like my Richard Prince imitation?

So, Americans. You seem on the verge of finally doing something about health care, but many of you also seem nervous. "Oooooh! It'll be too expensive!", or, "Oooooooh, the government's going to tell me which doctor I can, or can't, see!", or, "Ooooooooh, it's socialism!" O.K., take a deep breath. Ask yourself who's telling you these things. Pretty much all Republicans, right? The ones who've been bleating for years about fiscal responsibility while digging you into the deepest debt hole ever seen in the world? The one's who've been bleating for years about "family values" and "the sanctity of marriage" and the evils of "premarital sex"? Now, do you really think these folks are your most reliable advisers? Really?

As I've mentioned once or twice, I'm Canadian. Here's how it works up here. Say I wake up tomorrow feeling like there's something wrong, health-wise. Know what I do? I go to my doctor. Who's my doctor? Any family practice doc I feel like visiting (who, of course, isn't so overloaded he/she has no room for yet another patient. but that's a problem everywhere in the world). I go to his/her office, wait the usual time, tell him/her what's bugging me, he/she gives his/her diagnosis/advice/prescription/referral, I go home. If he/she has referred me to a specialist, his/her receptionist might make the subsequent appointment for me, or I might make it myself. I go to see the specialist. Oh, no! I need surgery! I go to the hospital (maybe not that day, but soon enough for the condition I have). All fixed up, I leave the hospital after whatever amount of time necessary. I go back to work, happy to be healthy again.

Now, pop quiz - what's missing from that description that would figure very large in an American's description of a similar sequence of events? As Lyle Lovett would say, "M-O-N-E-Y". Not once during that whole adventure would I have had to think about money. Ever. Not once would I think that maybe I'd have to mortgage my home, or take out a loan against my business, or sell my first-born son into slavery.

And, you know what's even more interesting? The price I pay for this wonderful system. I'd like to tell you how much it is, but it comes off my paycheque automatically. And it's so small an amount that, well, I just don't notice.

Now, I'll bet you're asking, "Gee, Steve, how can that be?" Well, I'm not paying the very large salaries of overpaid CEOs (millions a year), CFOs (ditto), board members (ditto), endless levels of employees, and, last but not least, dividends to share holders. And there are few incentives for doctors to order endless pointless tests (yes, there really are such things) in order to boost their profit margins.

Is this system perfect? Get a grip. No system is perfect. Is it better than what you've got? You'd better believe it. I lived in Tampa for three years, teaching at the University of South Florida. Covered by their health plan. Which would have evaporated had I lost my job. That doesn't happen here. You've got it, forever. I had to pay for every visit to my G.P. Doesn't happen here.

Get behind Obama on this one, folks. It is what is charmingly referred to as a "no-brainer" (which makes me wonder why Republicans are so set against it, but perhaps the phrase isn't meant to be taken literally).

Oh, well...speaking of the stupid, there's Sgt. Crowley, of the Cambridge, Massachusetts police force. I have to admit, a 58 year old black man, dressed in 58 year old man-of-any-colour clothes, inside a nice house, presenting Harvard I.D., would make me darn suspicious that he was a thief, too. Especially if he had arrived at the break-in in a cab, which drove away after the driver had helped him with his nefarious B&E. Yup. And the fact that he just wouldn't quiet down and step back inside the house I figured he was burglarizing after I, an armed police officer, an armed white police officer, had explicitly told him to step outside, well, I mean, how unreasonable can a guy get? A black guy, that is. And, I mean, come on, an old black guy at that! Obviously a criminal.