Being Thankful

There are many, many days that I place my hands together in a praying motion and give thanks to my husband, Dennis, for providing me with my cozy little house and my fair standard of living. I never forget how hard he worked all of his life and how little time he had to enjoy the fruits of his labor before passing away at only 68 years of age.

This morning the same thought came to mind but along with it the wholehearted thankfulness that I live in Canada and can count on our government health services to look after my medical needs without bankrupting me.

I've tried, without luck, to make my American friends understand this but most that I come in contact with have good health care through the companies they've retired from. They are very frightened of losing what they have if the United States attempts to implement a health care system similar to ours. But most, if not all, of these people have co-pays which could amount to 20% of whatever health service they require. Just think if they had a surgery costing $20,000...their out of pocket cost would be $4,000.

I have no idea what the final cost will be for my lip cancer treatment but you can bet it will be pretty high and I'll never see a bill for any of it. This is minor stuff as far as medical expenses go but I see often where a friend or family here in Canada needs a medical service and, again, will never see a bill.

For Canadians, we can at least save our worrying for our health problems and not for how it's going to affect our income.