Afghan Boy makes trip to Canada

There is a little boy from Afghanistan who was found by Canadian Armed forces has been flown to Canada to receive treatment for a fatal heart disease. Now, I'm all about the humanitarian aid we are providing for the people in Afghanistan, and I think it is awesome that the outlook for this boy is much better now than it was a month ago, but I have real problems with our health care system. Our system is a government-run, zero-accountability hunk of shunt. Everyone gets freaked out over a "two tier" system, saying that it will make us like the States. The thing is, our system could stand to have a little healthy competition. It is lame for me to be paying my MSP premiums and never using them and if I was in the hospital, I'm not sure I'd really trust them to give me the best possible care). I'd rather be paying money to a private company that I know will take care of me when I need it; because if they do not take care of me, I will take my money elsewhere. Right now our medical services are screwing people left, right, and centre, but they are going anywhere because they are the only game in town.

I hope that Afghan boy gets better, and lives a full and productive life. He certainly has a lot more hope for a good future now that Afghanistan is free of Taliban rule. But what really strikes me about the CBC story is this quote:

Djamshid will be treated for free by the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa, where he arrived Friday night.

"Treated for Free"? Well, free in the sense that he does not have to pay for anything (and it looks like the Muslim community in Ottawa is rallying to pay his families travel and food costs), but the operation certainly isn't free. The people of Ontario are paying for it.