O Canada

As luck would have it, I was born in Canada. Over these past few days I have been reminded of how fortunate I was in my accident of birth. It's something that I always know is true, but I certainly don't think about it on a regular basis.

Well, I thought about it in the OR on Monday morning as two doctors and three nurses hovered around and about endeavouring to patch my body. I wondered what the bill would come to ... the bill that I will never see. The cost of all of that expertise plus the room with all of its expensive equipment must be quite staggering, but it hasn't cost me one red cent. Oh I know that all we citizens pay for such benefits in taxes and such, but I'm certainly not stuck with a huge, one-time outlay at a moment in my life when it would be very difficult to afford.

Later, I considered the three-day, post-operative care, once again funded by public health care. I wondered what that bill would look like. I do know, for example, that I could have upgraded to a semi private room for a hundred and fifty bucks, so if an upgrade costs that much, it rather staggers me to think of what the basic cost of a bed plus food plus meds plus nursing would amount to.

Our national anthem is O Canada. Indeed.