Canada's in the spotlight as debate on health-care reform rages south of the border

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WASHINGTON - It's rare that anything to do with Canada is front and centre in the minds of Americans, but the Canadian health-care system has been a hot topic of discussion over the past few weeks as Capitol Hill legislators work on a massive health-care overhaul.

From hair salons to hospital waiting rooms and Georgetown dinner parties, Americans have wanted to know: "What's health care really like in Canada?"

"Is it true no one can get a family doctor in Canada?" came the query from a Commerce Department employee earlier this week at a Canada Day barbecue at the Canadian Embassy.

No, it's not true, came the reply.

"But don't people have to wait weeks or months for special services?" Occasionally, was the response from another Canadian.

"Is it really true that every single Canadian is covered?" Yes, came the rousing, in-unison answer from the entire group of Canadians involved in the discussion.

The Canadian health-care system will likely remain a subject of fascination for Americans with health-care reform expected to dominate Congress when it returns to work on Monday after the Fourth of July recess.

By the end of the month, the House of Representatives hopes to vote on a health reform plan, and President Barack Obama has said he wants legislation by October.

Yesterday, the two leaders of the Senate health committee announced that they'd come up with a government-run insurance option to compete with private insurance plans.

Its US$611 billion pricetag is cheaper than the original $1 trillion estimate, something that's expected to draw more bipartisan support. Under the plan, say Democratic Senators Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd, 97 per cent of Americans will end up with health insurance coverage.

Currently, 47 million U.S. citizens -- mostly the impoverished -- have none. The U.S. also has the highest health-care costs of any country in the industrialized world.

In weeks of congressional hearings and debate on health-care reform, Canada has often enjoyed a starring role -- sometimes cast as the demonic bogeyman, and other times a towering beacon of virtue.

There have been TV ads warning of the alleged horrors of the Canadian system, and Republican pollster Frank Luntz even advised his colleagues to "use horror stories from Canada" while opposing Obama's health-care agenda.

"They do resonate," he said in a memo obtained in May by various media outlets.

Even Obama seemed to acknowledge this week the American distrust of Canada's single-payer health-care system, even though many of his Democratic colleagues have spent weeks defending their neighbour to the north during congressional hearings on health reform.

"Whenever you start hearing these arguments about socialized medicine, government takeover, rationing, Canada-style health care -- what I need you to do, and I need everybody here to do and everybody who's watching to do, is to actually pay attention to the argument," Obama told a town hall meeting in Virginia.

"Don't let people scare you out of reforming a system that we know is not working."

During various hearings, Republicans have frequently called witnesses -- some of them from Canada -- to debunk Canadian public health care as a decrepit system plagued with problems and delays.

Belinda Stronach's decision to travel to the U.S. for a medical procedure after suffering breast cancer two years ago frequently came up during the debate, even though associates of the former MP say her trip to California for reconstructive surgery had nothing to do with Canada's health-care system.

Some lesser-known Canadians have figured in the debate. Mitch McConnell, a Republican senator from Kentucky, recently spoke of a Canadian named Fran Tooley from Kingston, Ont., as he apparently obeyed Luntz's directives.

"Two years ago, Fran herniated three discs in her back and was told it would take at least a year before she could consult a neurosurgeon about her injury," he said.