For Canadian Mike Jubenville, it started with a stiff neck. He thought maybe he slept the wrong way.

Jubenville got choked up trying to recount to a Troy crowd of about 80 people on Monday how that “stiff neck” turned into a nightmarish odyssey exposing huge flaws with the Canadian universal health care.

Faced with waiting times of 18 months to see a specialist despite being crippled in bed with pain, Jubenville finally had surgery on his back. But it wasn’t successful and doctors told him the only remaining treatment was pain medication.

Jubenville said he considered suicide with no help in sight. He said it was as if he was living with a migraine headache for 18 months. He said he looked like a cancer patient and the pain medication was not working.

“I couldn’t hang on,” the man from Windsor said, as he choked up. “I started literally thinking about taking my life.”

Desperate for any help, Jubenville came to the United States for treatment. A clinic in Florida found that his initial surgery only fixed a small part of the problem with his back. He had surgery within two weeks to fix the rest of his back and was having dinner soon after with his wife.

Jubenville was part of a one hour forum Monday put on by the Mackinac Center For Public Policy at the Troy Community Center.

It was done to show the possible problems with universal health care that the Mackinac Center feels isn’t being discussed if the government takes over health care in the U.S.

The three Canadians were Shirley McGuin, Kelly Meloche and Jubenville. They are part of a series of videos the Mackinac Center did on problems with Canadian health care.

McGuin said she had a fall that caused her brain to bleed. She said her treatment for her life-threatening injury led to a 16-day hospital stay and didn’t cost her a dime. She said that led her to believe at the time Canada had the best health care “in the world.”

Then, she had a sore knee. A doctor said she needed knee replacement surgery and they had an opening in 18 months.

“I had heard about waiting lists,” McGuin said. “But it doesn’t impact you.”

McGuin said after waiting 18 months to see an orthopedic surgeon, she was told she had another year to wait for the surgery.

At that point, McGuin said she the hip had aggravated an already bad back and had her in extreme pain.

“I want to live my life,” said McGuin. “I don’t want to be on pain killers.”

McGuin said she saw an advertisement about Meloche’s business International HealthCare Providers, Inc. Meloche, the CEO and founder, helps Canadians cut through waiting lists by finding treatment outside of Canada.

Within a month after seeking treatment in the U.S., McGuin saw a surgeon for an appointment. Six weeks later she had the knee replacement surgery. She said one month later, she was on the beach walking.

Meloche said the Canadian health care system works wonderfully if you are healthy. There’s no cost to the Canadian citizens at the point of use, she said.

But she said things change drastically if you need a specialist.

“Our wait times are becoming deadly,” she said.

Meloche said there are 875,000 to 1 million Canadians waiting for medical treatment in Canada, adding that her country has a population of 33 million.

“We are in big trouble,” she said.

Senator John Pappageorge, a Republican from Troy, sat and listened to the stories of waits as long as 18 months.

“I guess in Canada,” the senator quipped, “a second opinion is out of the question.”