The Unbearable Lightness of Medicare for All

I love the idea of universal health care.

I grew up in Canada, and have lived in the US for the last 25 years. When I first moved to Florida for grad school, I was impressed by the timeliness and modernity of US doctors and other facilities, and even worked for a while at an Electronic Health Record startup (EHRs were just around the corner…in 1995).

For a long time, I had a smug reaction to conversations with my family and friends back home about healthcare. They’d bring up their complaints with OHIP (the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, our health administration — bet you didn’t know there is no national health system in Canada). Most of these were centered on long waits to see doctors or get procedures, and I’d respond with a quip about how I got an MRI for back pain with only 72 hours notice.

I was very much in the “haves” category in the US health system, with pretty good insurance for the majority of my time here. But as the years passed, and I had more terrible interactions with insurance companies, I came to realize the fundamental truth that underpins US health care: insurance companies don’t make money by paying claims. In a bizarre sense, the organization most closely entrusted with ensuring my health and longevity was — in fact — trying to undermine that goal.