Do people 'deserve' universal health care?

[Thorne]

All but very rare and specialized heart surgery that is done in the United States is also available in Canada, a Toronto cardiac surgeon said.

The one significant exception would be surgery to the thoracic aorta, the giant blood vessel that carries blood that's pumped out of the heart to other organs. If a person develops a swelling or aneurysm, an abnormal bulging, in the thoracic aorta, and needs surgery to open the chest cavity, "that's a very extensive operation," Feindel said.

So what. They don't have the skills/equipment/training, etc. in Canada???

Sounds like pretty specialized surgery to me. Maybe they don't have the skills in Canada. Perhaps the best in the field is in the US. That doesn't mean it can't be done in Canada, but if you can afford the best, why not?

The Fraser Institute estimated that 41,000 Canadians sought health care services in the U.S. in 2009.

Wow. That's a lot of people to PAY for health care when they can get it for free without the added expense of traveling.

Again, a lot depends on the type of care they're looking for. Personally, if I needed something that the US couldn't provide, and I could afford to go somewhere else to get that care, I'd do it. Wouldn't you? This says nothing about the relative merits of the health care systems of either nation as a whole, only on individual cases. Who knows? Maybe they don't allow homeopathic woo-medicine in Canada.