Re: “What Trump’s agenda means for our health care,” comment, May 21.
The fine sentiments expressed by Danielle Martin and Sandro Galea illustrate where the divide between the U.S. and Canada might become a rift rather than acceptable differences in character.
U.S. President Donald Trump is a man of the marketplace and the balance sheet. He was elected principally because the voters rejected the cost of affordable care when they received the bill.
Our tradition of medical entitlement is already imploding under demographic change.
That banquet of services we expect is no longer affordable. If we stop treating health care as a sacred cow and institute a forensic audit, we might salvage a workable system.
The academics’ distaste for austerities is a serious impediment. Our present system must start to recognize the forces of the market.
The ideology that sustained NAFTA and free trade is dissolving along with the borders between institutional and private health care. If someone can find a better, cheaper way to deliver a service somewhere else, that will become the Amazon of choice.
The deficiencies and the obvious solutions are well known. It is the will to challenge the establishment that is lacking.
Russell Thompson
Victoria
