Jeffrey Simpson's book, Chronic Condition, is divided into two halves, the first half provides an informative history of the Canadian healthcare system, chronicling the challenges and problems it faced in becoming what we know today, which I found more compelling than the second. The second half of the book argues for Canada's need to modernize its healthcare system. Simpson believes this can be done in four ways: by dramatically cutting health care spending, raising taxes, incorporating privatization, and/or achieving savings by increasing efficiency. However, with Canadian politics, politicians are reluctant to engage in a serious debate about healthcare because they know it is tantamount to the end of their political career to even suggest these things to the public. However, they are privately becoming increasingly aware that, at the rate the healthcare system's costs are skyrocketing, it is simply not efficient or effective in addressing concerns about Canada's aging population. The costs associated with Canada's current healthcare system are growing faster than the revenue coming into the government. In many ways, Simpson tells the hard truth, but in other areas I find him to be way off track with his thoughts. I find that people will either extremely agree, disagree, or just stay in the middle without leaning in either direction, like me. Like many others I have found that Simpson takes too long to make his point and tends to constantly repeat his argument too many times Throughout the book he identifies what he believes are the key problems with the current healthcare system, which include but are not limited to : its failure to achieve adequate quality of care, given the increasing amount of public money being funneled into it. Which I would say is absolutely true. Canada… middle of paper… Ultimately, whether Canadians want to believe it or not, we are paying for the Cadillac, but getting the Chevrolet (Simpson 2012, p.8). As a society, Canada needs to strengthen its backbone and not shy away from the idea of ​​reforming the current healthcare system. Reform is needed and this book gave a good description of its history and Simpson's answers I sometimes find completely off base but others provide a good start. It may not be the huge change many idealists are waiting for, but it's a start and it's what Canadians need to start getting the ball rolling. Simpson does what many politicians and people in general are afraid to do, publicly criticize the system and provide solutions, sometimes harsh ones, that people don't want to hear. Whether it's raising taxes or losing some of the self-proclaimed identity gained from a unique but evidently broken healthcare system.