Is there a doctor in the house? - So about a month ago my crap-tacular knee went again (got to love genetic defects) and the strangest thing happened. I went to see a doctor.

Yep. Isn't that totally weird? I had a medical issue. I went to a walk-in clinic that is 2 blocks down the street (which, by the way, is a clinic that is open 7 days a week). I told the front desk receptionist an old knee injury resurfaced. I showed her my government medical insurance card. I waited about 45 minutes (which was less than my average wait for my doctors in the U.S. even with an appointment). I saw the doctor. He wrote me a script for physical therapy and one for an anti-inflammatory. He sent me to the basement for an x-ray. I took the elevator down to the basement. They took me immediately and 2 x-rays later, I was on my way.

The total amount of time from when I walked in to when I walked out was less than 90 minutes. The total cost: $15 and change for the meds, which after my employer's prescription plan kicked in, came to less than $4 CND.

I kept thanking all the receptionists, doctors, nurses and technicians as if they had performed some kind of multi-organ transplant on me using their own organs. Each person I thanked looked at me like they thought I was a bit "touched," until I explained, "I'm from the U.S. and just moved here a few months ago." Once I uttered that phrase, they all smiled proudly and gave virtually the same response, "Oh, yes, that would explain it. You're not used to having health care are you?"

They all said they couldn't understand why a country with as many resources as the States couldn't provide basic health care for all of its citizens. I told them it wasn't that we couldn't. It's that we didn't want to.

There's this crazy concept at work here. If you give people access to medical care while they are well and/or in the early stages of an illness, you can save money down the road versus waiting until the sickness is too much to manage and then having people show up in the emergency room where the cost of treatment is much, much higher and people without insurance still can't pay.

Now, don't get me wrong. The system here is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Keeping docs and nurses has been a bit of an issue and there are waiting lists for certain kinds of procedures and surgeries. I know that there are some Canadians with resources who are going to States rather than wait. And of course, we pay much higher taxes for this government service.

But, I have to tell you, as one of those Americans who has gone for stretches of time without health insurance, it sure is nice to not have to hold my breath and live with the fear that I am one illness or accident away from complete ruination.

News-a-tainment - Between the two years I spent commuting and the now 7 months I've been living here in Canada, one of the things that still fascinates me is the difference in what and how American news stations present versus Canadians ones.

In the morning, I generally flip between CNN and CBC (the main national Canadian news station). Although they both might be reporting on the same news item, I end up coming away not only with different information, but with a different feeling. First, I find that I end up knowing more about the topic from Canadian news. It's made me realize how much American news sources leave out. Second, the "spins" are also different with the American news reporting, even from the more "liberal" sources (don't get me started on Fox "news"), being more to the "right" than the Canadian ones.

Then there's the issue of "balance." By this, I don't mean "right" versus "left." What I'm talking about is balancing stories that directly tie into the country versus reporting on stories that involve the other billions of people and places that share the planet with us. I've become so aware of how nationalistic even the "world wide news programs" are in the U.S. I probably hear as much about U.S. politics in Canada as Canadian but with U.S. reporting there is no such reciprocity with any other country. No wonder most U.S. students can barely find their asses on a map never mind some country where "those poor children" are starving and whatnot.

I'll be honest, getting to view U.S. policy through the eyes of another has on more than one occasion made me more embarrassed than I already am. I wish that the average American could have the chance I've had to step outside of the U.S. media machine and get some perspective. Maybe then people would be more appropriately outraged at what's going on in the world and the U.S.'s role in it.