So many reasons to be glad we live in Canada

Three check marks, date of birth, signature and date, and I have health-care coverage for the next five years without directly having to pay one cent! I just renewed my MCP coverage.

I can’t imagine what it’s like to not have health-care coverage. For without it, being sick is not only life-threatening when you do become sick, but you could face bankruptcy and financial ruin.

Just imagine having a child and you have to make a decision whether or not you can afford to bring that sick child to a doctor! And when you do decide to bring the child to the doctor, you know that the doctor is at the bottom of the totem pole, professionally.

We Canadians take health care for granted as a rule. But just imagine if you lived in what is being touted as the greatest country in the world, the United States of America. If you’re poor, Medicaid will cover you if you can find a doctor, which is very difficult and even then you won’t get the best treatment. If you’re employed full time, your employer will provide you with coverage but it will cost you at least $20,000 a year and then the deductibles are outrageous and it doesn’t include drugs. If you fall in the middle financially, you could be one of the 20 million without coverage.

I don’t know why people mistakenly assume that the U.S. is the greatest country in the world especially now when they have Trump as president. They have a murder rate of 15.6 per 100,000 residents while we have a murder rate of 1.6. The average per capita income in the U.S. is $30,000 while in Canada it is $50,000. The U.S. is rated the 14th happiest country in the world while Canada is rated the 7th. U.S. News reported that Canada is the 2nd best country in the world to live in, while the U.S. is the 7th.

Just imagine having a child and you have to make a decision whether or not you can afford to bring that sick child to a doctor!

Trump’s campaign slogan was to make America Great Again. Quite frankly, other than militarily, I don’t know any time when America was great for all of the things that really matter.

As a retired air force officer, I have lived in a lot of different countries in the world.

I chose Canada.

Tom Badcock

St. John’s