None of them would trade. And they have had relatively minor complaints, true. I misspoke. None of them rose to the level of wanting to change.

I’m sure the owners of Rolls-Royces can find something to bitch about, but doubt many would trade for a Ford. Not that Canada’s medical care is a Rolls – - – it’s not.

And their legislators.

An enormous amount of money was spent to prevent less expensive medical care and limited access to medical care. By Conservatives. One of many stains on America’s history, on the same order of magnitude for its’ time as slavery.

I talk to them about their health plan when they’re down here for the winter.

Do they complain about Canadian National Health? Oui.

Do they want an American-type system? Non!

QED.

Canada isn’t really “Medicare for all.” It’s more like “Medicaid for all,” operating mostly at the provincial (state) level.

How is funding dispensed from the central government, and what’s involved in making sure those general terms are met by the provincial programs? Is it still simple at that level, or is there a huge bureaucracy that’s involved?

From the little I’ve found (not inspired to overwork this), their approach seems very light-handed, which may be as much cultural as legislative. The last two Ministers of Health have been Conservatives, by the Canadian definition of course.

Something like 30 percent of health care in Canada is still privately funded. It’s around 50 percent in the U.S.

The law grants extraordinary power because the law is so short. It can deal only with generalities, and grant only sweeping powers. Here’s the essential core of the Canadian health care system:

In order to satisfy the criterion respecting comprehensiveness, the health care insurance plan of a province must insure all insured health services provided by hospitals, medical practitioners or dentists, and where the law of the province so permits, similar or additional services rendered by other health care practitioners.

There are three more similar sections, each mandating 100% universality, portability, and accessibility in the same simple terms.

The essentials of ObamaCare could, no doubt, also be expressed in six pages. And probably would be a better law for it…but you’d hate it even more. It grew to 2,000 pages in Congressional conference committees, dominated by conservatives determined to fence in the Obama administration at every turn. The American style is to micromanage the law in an attempt to assuage the fears of all concerned. And so we get laws that are 2,000 pages long.

I don’t think that demanding that the text of laws must fit on a bumper sticker in order to “rein in government” is going to work out like you hope it will.