One of the great things about Twitter is that although you can’t possibly keep an eye on everything, every now and then something flies past that you never would have seen otherwise.

This weekend this extraordinary post caught my eye: How I lost my fear of Universal Health Care. Please read this earnest young mom’s experience. It starts:

When I moved to Canada in 2008, I was a die-hard conservative Republican. So when I found out that we were going to be covered by Canada’s Universal Health Care, I was somewhat disgusted. This meant we couldn’t choose our own health coverage, or even opt out if we wanted to.

I’ve always preferred to stay out of political spitting contests (to put it mildly), because I can’t function when wild accusations fly around. Heck, everything I’ve seen says most people don’t actually know what’s in the health reform law. And besides, what I’m about is patient engagement, not politics. I believe people should be actively engaged and responsible in health and care, and that society should enable that, not block it.

So what I need is real-world examples of how things work out when people try to get care and try to be responsible for their families’ health.

And this young mother relates what she found when she moved to the land of universal care.  Partway through the post, she writes – [Read more…]