Some days, I'd like to forget the last 12 months of my life.

In August 2007, at 44, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. After research and second and third opinions, I was successfully treated in Bangor via robotically assisted surgery. Thanks to an excellent surgeon-urologist, I am blessed to be cancer-free (and, yes, prostate-free as well).

Little could I know that only 10 months later, on Friday the 13th of June, I would suffer a sub-arachnoid hemorrhage -- a brain aneurysm -- requiring an immediate medical decision. At Eastern Maine Medical Center's emergency room, my wife and I were told by the neurologist that I could receive an open craniotomy there, or go to Boston. That's where Massachusetts General Hospital offered a minimally invasive procedure using an arterial catheterization to place a tiny coiled wire in the aneurysm to "fill the pothole" in my cranial artery.

By midnight we were Boston-bound in an ambulance. On Father's Day, I had the long procedure, conducted by some of the finest neurosurgeons in New England.

Thanks to exceptional care at Mass General, I am blessed to have made a nearly full recovery only eight weeks after this potentially fatal condition.

As health insurance claim statements arrived in the mail over the last several months, I have been incredibly thankful to have health insurance through my employer. The cancer surgery in Maine was a relative bargain at $25,000, but my 13-day stay at Mass General -- 11 of those in intensive care -- cost more than the value of my home.

I've added up more than $210,000 of expenses, all of which were covered by my health insurance provider. But I've also started thinking, sadly, about those Maine citizens who might not be in my fortunate position to make such life-saving choices.

I support universal health care, and the principle that our great nation should never deny medical treatment to any citizen. Just last month, I read about a woman (uninsured, I believe) who died in a hospital waiting room while waiting more than 24 hours to see a doctor.

How this can happen in the United States is a travesty. Yet as I contemplate a potential shift to universal health care, what will that mean for access to advanced medicine if we are, in fact, offering universal access to citizens? Will we need to make different (i.e., rationed) choices in how treatment is allocated to accommodate everyone's needs while containing costs? How will medical decisions be made if physicians and hospitals must weigh factors such as age, condition of the patient, and cost and reimbursement considerations?

Might we find ourselves subject not to universal health care but instead a form of "utilitarian" health care, where doctors must weigh a broad range of non-medical and medical factors before making referrals to more advanced facilities out-of-state to save patients' lives?

Would my robotic prostatectomy have been authorized by some universal health care policy since it required a shorter hospital stay and produced less blood loss and lower rates of infection? And would my coiling procedure to close the aneurysm be denied since it was considerably more costly in Boston, when a surgery producing essentially the same result for a healthy young male is available near my home?

In other words, based on health, availability and difference in costs, I may not have had the opportunity to go to Boston to receive this amazing procedure that fixed my aneurysm -- unless perhaps I was willing and able to pay the difference.

This is speculation, since no plan for universal health care is on the table. But I suspect there will be soon. Thus, my convictions in supporting universal access are being tested.

I believe my health insurance made my choices possible and my access to world-class medicine affordable to me. But as many espouse the value of universal health care and the idea that it is basic human right in an industrialized, post-modern society like ours, are we ready for the potential consequences?

It cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars to save my life -- twice -- in the last year. Economically, it was a wise investment since my earnings and contributions to our economy outweigh the cost of these surgeries. From a practical standpoint, I am worth it.

But from a personal perspective, this investment in my health was beyond worth it.

It was priceless.

Just ask my two teenage sons and my wife. I received excellent care at top-notch facilities using advanced surgical techniques. That saved my life. I hope all Maine citizens are allowed those same choices regardless of health insurance status or whatever model of universal healthcare is implemented.

I pray that our presidential nominees and elected representatives consider the essential role of equity and excellence as the discussion on universal health care heats up in the months leading up to and following the election.

Jonathan Henry lives in Hampden and is dean of enrollment services at the University of Maine at Augusta. He is co-facilitator of the monthly Prostate Cancer Support Group at Eastern Maine Medical Center. He can be reached at jhenry@maine.edu.