I’m at a loss as to how any American in 2020 can still insist that there is a “Market” solution to making healthcare affordable? “The Market” works very well in a lot of areas, but healthcare isn’t one of them. Insisting on up front pricing or in-network pricing is idiocy.

I compared our family finances when we made 80k in Texas vs 80k in Ontario. When you add up health insurance, out of pocket expenses, and income and payroll taxes, we had about $5000 more/year living in Canada than living in the United States.

A few years ago my partner was hospitalized for 7 weeks and then off work for another 16. Not only did we pay nothing for the health care (which was excellent by the way) but my partner also received wage replacement through the Employment Insurance coverage. I thought that a long hospital stay and time off work would devastate our family finances, but instead, it was neutral.

American resistance to single-payer health coverage is utterly baffling to me. Americans are perfectly ok with socialized military, socialized police protection, socialized fire protection, socialized road construction, socialized water and sewer service.But socialized health care will somehow destroy America?

This is the story I tell people when I talk about why I will never, ever, live in America again.