I’m a Canadian, in Canada. Jack, my cousin in NC, asked me about health care in Canada and if a universal plan was do-able in the States. I said, “No”. I told him, 8 years ago, that the insurance companies would do EVERYTHING to stop it and they have. I told Jack that our system was far from ideal. Drugs, eye care and other services, like physio, were generally not included. However, the BIG health challenges, like cancer and heart disease, were covered well. It is a bit of patchwork quilt. However, there is no doubt that average folks were better cared for in Canada.

I have struggled to understand the American system. In 1983, my mother had a heart attack and required a triple bypass. At the reunion of her high school class in 1988, in Cleveland, she was sitting with an old friend. When mom told her about…