The Important Word: "System"

Because I'm sure everyone wants to know what I think about healthcare (is that laughter?)...here it is, short (for me) and sweet.

The current healthcare system in the U.S. tends not to cover the very sick. Insurance companies don't like to cover the very people who NEED coverage because then insurance companies lose money. That's why so many people in the U.S. have to sell their homes or hold fund-raisers to cover the costs of being catastrophically sick.

As I have said before, the Canadian healthcare system has its pros and cons. One of its biggest downsides is that it tends not to cover those who are well. Seriously: The sicker you are, the higher up the list you get. On the up side, when you are sick, you're cared for. Still, lack of early access to the system makes it more difficult to catch problems early.

But the real problem, in both countries, is that healthcare is a system. Systems are, among other things, abstract ways to group individual concrete elements.

Which is fine, until you're the individual concrete element, and it's your knee that prevents you from walking, and the waiting list for knee replacements is a year. Or when you have an aggressive cancer, for which a new treatment shows promise--but that treatment isn't covered by your insurance company.

Models and systems always have cracks, through which individuals always fall. Yes, it stinks. However, you can get better systems and models when you accurately define the goal in the first place--and when people know what that goal is.

So what's the goal? Decent healthcare for as many people as possible? Designer healthcare for those who can afford it? Both? Neither? Something in between?

Whatever your answer, remember that someday you--YOUR child, YOUR parent, YOUR spouse--WILL be the one falling through the cracks. It WILL happen. Does that change anything?

Uh-huh. Thought so.