Almost every summer I visit Canada to go camping in Quetico Provincial Park.

This past summer, on my way home after the wilderness adventure, we decided to get some authentic Canadian cuisine at a restaurant called Boston Pizza. We got to talking with our waitress and told her we were from “The States” like many countries refer to us.

Of course, the usual conversation came up about the differences and similarities between our countries.

Eventually, the waitress proudly boasted that Canada’s universal health care system is better than ours. Everyone in their country is covered, unlike the U.S., where about 40 million people are uninsured.

OK, so what? A couple 20 million uninsured people doesn’t mean that their health care system is better than ours does it?

Look at it from my perspective; I’m a healthy 21- year-old college student. What does this mean?

It means I don’t need my hard-earned tax dollars, or yours, to pay for my health care. You see, since I’m 21, I am able to stay on my parents’ excellent health insurance until I’m 26.

Even if they didn’t have health insurance, though, I’m obviously enrolled at the university and therefore am covered by the school’s health care.

Plus, by the time I am no longer able depend on the school’s insurance or my parents’, I should be able to get coverage. I mean, why wouldn’t I? I’m healthy with no pre-existing conditions and will have a bachelor’s degree to find a good job with health benefits.

It’s also worth mentioning how expensive some of my typical purchases were when I was in Canada for a month in the summer of 2008.

Cigarettes were almost $13 with a picture of corroded lungs on the pack. The cheapest beer I could buy was a 28-pack of Lakeport Honey for more than $30.

The reason for these ridiculously high prices for supposedly “cheap” beer and cigarettes is because they are taxed more heavily because the government pays for health care.

As a college student, I like my 30-pack of Busch Light to cost $12 and my Turkish Silvers to cost $6 without the guilt trip. Cheap beer and cigarettes; just another blessing of our health care system.

If I had time to explain all this to the waitress, maybe she would have seen how the U.S. health care system works better for me than Canada’s.

Maybe those 40 million uninsured Americans should just be 21 year old college students, because it works for me. But then again, that’s just what I think of my situation.