Why Canadians can’t talk about America

Can we please discuss American health care without condescension?

People receiving free dental treatment at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Wednesday. | Ruth Fremson / The New York Times. | More Photos >>

Reading the Toronto Star, you might get the impression that Canadians know nothing about political reality in the United States.

Take this article in today’s Star, pretentiously titled "Why Americans can’t talk about health care." If I were doing one of my actual title gags, it would go something like this:

Stupid, Right-Wing Americans, Disagreeing, Are Going Nowhere On Health Care

The article’s only discernible point is that a bunch of Americans are very right-wing, and that’s why their health care system is so screwed up. The piece looks like a combination of man-on-the-street interviews—all in Buffalo!—with one anti-government type and the rest with health insurance problems, and three expert interviews: someone from the Kaiser foundation ("American health care bad!"), someone from the "right-wing" American Enterprise Institute ("big government bad!") and a doctor from a local hospital ("I wish someone would talk about how we treat people, not just how we insure them!"). These bromides fit right into the rote thinking behind this article: Americans have a big problem, but they’re too blindly conservative, so they’re fucked. Oh, and something something preventative care.

Not a word about the health insurance lobby, or the compromised elected officials who champion its causes. No mention about how ugly Canada’s fight for Medicare got back in the day.

This is lazy reporting based solely on the haughty Canadian belief that Americans are less enlightened than Canadians. End.