Your “guest editorialist” is quite the disseminator of biased views and misinformation. I’m referring to Don Brunell in the July 6 edition of your paper. Mr. Brunell is “president of the Association of Washington Business.” Gosh, I wonder with a title like that if he has an agenda? He might better be introduced as “guest propagandist.”

Brunell claims there is inefficient and substandard health care in Canada due to their single payer, universal health insurance. He paints a picture of medical bread lines with those poor Canadians waiting months for the most basic care. Having lived in Canada for many years, I can tell you from experience that quite the opposite is true. I have received as prompt and as professional medical care in Canada as I have in the United States. In fact, the only glaring difference from a patient’s perspective is that in the States, method of payment is the first thing you are asked, whereas in Canada, the patient’s health is the chief concern.

Imperfections in the Canadian system have caused Mr. Brunell to condemn it as a failure, yet imperfections in the American system seem to be no big deal. You have to get pretty creative when you are trying to put a happy face on a health care system that says, “You can have it if you can pay for it.”

My friends in Canada continue to cherish their medical coverage and are horrified at the thought of going the American way. The world’s richest country can afford to spend $5 billion a month “liberating” Iraq, but it can’t see its way clear to free its own citizens from huge health care costs. Maybe in the future Mr. Brunell will have the opportunity to be a low-income senior. I think it would be a perspective that would considerably improve his research.

Tom Fix

Snoqualmie