Franklin LópezAbout 20 years ago, I moved to Canada. I joked with my friends that I was coming to take advantage of the socialized health care system. They thought I was just escaping Cheney's second term. Truthfully, I just wanted a change of scenery—but that’s another story.
For a short time in the U.S., I had Kaiser Permanente insurance. Holy shit, what a rip-off. If I got sick, I had to drag myself to their shopping-mall-looking building in suburban Atlanta, see their doctor, and then pay again on top of it. So I quit.
Not long after, I had two trips to the emergency room that racked up a ton of debt. On the second visit, I was in so much pain I was screaming my guts out for five hours before a kind nurse finally shot me up with morphine.
Fast-forward to Canada: the system here isn’t perfect, but if I need to see a doctor, I just... go. My meds are dirt cheap. I’ve been to the hospital a few times—for myself or friends—and we’ve always been taken care of. My partner and I even accessed the fertility clinic in Quebec when we were trying to have a kid—now we have a kid!
Yeah, I pay high taxes. Yeah, the system has flaws. But the peace of mind I have knowing that as I get older, or as a parent, my people are covered and I’m not gonna go broke paying for medical bills? That’s fucking priceless.
I get it—there’s a contradiction in an anarchist praising a state-run system. And yeah, my Canadian anarchist friends love to complain about long waits. But compared to the nightmare down south? It’s no contest.
I do wonder, though—how would anarchists organize socialized health care? What would a non-state model look like? Would love to hear what @PeterGelderloos thinks about this.
Given the current national conversation about health care in the U.S., it seems like most folks are fed up too. Anywho, just wanted to share my two cents.
#HealthcareForAll #MedicareForAll #HealthInsuranceScam #UniversalHealthCare #EndMedicalDebt #AnarchistThoughts #HealthCareCrisis
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