Is there any American who is deluded enough to think their broken, for-profit healthcare system is better than Canada’s publicly funded Medicare? The answer is yes but, most worrisome, it was the current U.S. President, Donald J. Trump, who recently stated Canada’s universal healthcare structure would improve if the country became the 51st state.
Even before he was inaugured on Jan. 20, Trump had shown that he could not care less about keeping good international relations – for the most part, of course, there are one or two autocrats he seems to be fond of – or being careful not to tread into political territory that could instigate a trade war that would harm American consumers.
But the 45th and now 47th President is like a spoiled child, one who has made Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince their whole personality – while still misunderstanding part of the book because this particular child is no skilled reader. Trump wants Greenland and the Panama Canal, renamed the Gulf of Mexico, and wants to annex Canada, stripping it of its sovereignty to suit the U.S.’ needs – and his whims. All this while he fails to fulfill even the smallest of his promises. America would like to know how any of this improve the price of eggs? A week into his presidency, there still has been no decrease in their prices, instead they are seeing a spike.
But while he is not actively improving working-class people’s lives as he promised on the campaign trail, Trump won’t stop doubling and tripling down on these vain Imperialist-like wishes of his. During a visit to North Carolina, he made some blatantly laughable – if one can still manage to laugh at this point – about how much life would improve for Canadians if they went from sovereign nation to state.
Someone hasn’t done their homework
In the clip above, President Donald Trump claims that if Canada became a state there would be a “tremendous tax cut” for its citizens. Furthermore, Canadians “wouldn’t have to worry about military” and “many other things,” which includes “better health coverage,” nay, “much better health coverage.” This, of course, begs the question: How could America do anything remotely beneficial for Canada’s far superior and less dehumanizing healthcare system?
True to the reelected president’s usual mindset, who cares about details when you speak with conviction and empty confidence? Even though we’d love to hear an elaborated version of his plan – so we could better understand how unfeasible it is – we should know by now that Trump’s plans are more like, you know, concepts.
In a recent Senate Budget Committee hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), asked Russell Vought, Project 2025 author and Trump’s nominee for director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, if he’d be willing to tell the President “that it is immoral” and “wrong to cut Medicaid” for lower-income families while giving “tax breaks to the rich.”
After Vought tried to offer a roundabout answer, the Independent Senator rephrased his question: “As you well know, unfortunately, the United States of America is the only major country on Earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right.” He went on to state the arguably dystopian facts concerning the suffocating healthcare structure in the U.S. and how too many Americans either don’t have insurance or are underinsured.
It’s almost unfathomable that the President would be telling any country, and Canada no less, that America could improve their healthcare system, when “all Canadian residents have reasonable access to medically necessary hospital and physician services without paying out-of-pocket,” (per Government of Canada).
While, as Trump claims, Canadians pay a lot of taxes, these also mean they don’t have to pay egregious amounts of money for health care – or be subjected to a lack thereof – and then be denied their claims when they most need the insurers’ help. Any Canadian fully aware of the discrepancies between the two systems, would reasonably – and ever-politely – say “no, thank you,” to Trump’s offer.
Published: Jan 26, 2025 10:21 am