COMMENTARY: Let’s stop feeling smug about our health-care system

A disturbing report in the National Post should be a wake up call for Canadians who think our health-care system is among the best in the world.

It shows that more and more people are declaring bankruptcy, or draining their life savings to pay for cancer treatment.

Gone are the days when we all took comfort in the knowledge that, if a medical crisis occurred, our universal health-care system would look after us.

Over the years, federal cutbacks to health care and the de-listing of needed services to reduce health-care costs have forced Canadians to fend for themselves by seeking cancer treatments in American cities or even off-shore treatment centres.

We watch how the Trump administration is cancelling eligibility for millions of Americans and we smugly think that such  insensitive action would never happen here in Canada, but it does.

READ MORE: U.S. House Republicans pass Donald Trump’s health-care bill

Those who qualify for cancer care certainly get the best treatment possible, but there are too many stories of Canadians being told that their government will not cover the cost of treatment for cancer and a number of other medical conditions.

That’s not the kind of health-care system Canadians have paid for, and it’s not the kind of health-care system Canadians deserve.

Bill Kelly is the host of Bill Kelly Show on AM 900 CHML and a commentator for Global News.