Diane Francis on Canadian and American health care in a Conservative newspaper

[murphyj87]

This is by Diane Francis, an American (from Chicago) who moved to Canada, and is an economist who writes for the National Post (which describes itself as the voice of Canadian Conservatives) and for the Financial Post, so even Canadian Conservatives feel this way.


The real story. Here are the facts as to why Canada's medical system, far from perfect, is dramatically better than America's:

1. It is cheaper even though it takes care of the entire population, for 10.1% of GDP compared with 17% in the U.S.

2. Canada's health care system, which fully looks after 34 million people, costs roughly what the private-sector health insurance companies make in profits in the United States looking after less than half the population for excessive premiums.

3. Canada's health care system is cheaper still if the litigation costs of fighting over medical bills is eliminated as it is when the government is the sole-insurer. Estimates are that court costs and judgments add another 2 to 3% of GDP to the total medical tab in the United States.

4. Canada's health care system enhances economic productivity. Workers diagnosed with illnesses can still change employers and be employable because they are not rejected by employers with health benefits due to pre-conditions, and, in fact, are intentionally treated for preconditions.

5. Infant mortality and maternal mortality are much lower in Canada and Europe than in the U.S.

6. Outcomes with major illnesses, such as cancer and heart disease, are better in Canada than they are in the United States.

7. Longevity is better in Canada and Europe than in the U.S.

8. No emergency is neglected in Canada, despite the lies that Americans tell and think is the case.

9. Some elective procedures may take longer if compared to the blue-ribbon U.S. health care of the advantaged and rich, but that's not comparing apples with apples. More appropriately, the care of the overall population should be what is compared, and there are tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured or uninsurable, and thus, those Americans are denied the health care they need which they would get and be guaranteed in Canada.

10. No one in Canada goes broke because of medical bills whereas AARP estimates half of personal bankruptcies are due to unpaid, high medical bills.

11. Canadians are able to choose any physician and to seek multiple opinions of other physicians, while most Americans with insurance run health care are limited to a small network of physicians.

12. Canadian doctors and nurses are better trained than American counterparts and U.S. physicians must study for at least a year in order to qualify to practice in Canada.

13. Drugs made and invented in the United States are cheaper in Canada, Europe and Japan because our communal health care means volume discounts and savings are passed along to society. Americans are overpaying massively.

14. Americans are being cheated by a patchwork quilt system, where the highest risk people - veterans, the indigent and the elderly - are insured by governments but the "gravy" i.e. young, healthy people, are the only ones handed over to private insurance companies.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Recommend +1M. What is so hard to understand about why theirs works and ours doesn't?

[loudsue]

2. Propaganda is what makes it so hard to understand.

The lies get in the way. The USA also doesn't have the Canadian law that "news" has to be true.

[MisterP]

4. then again, 70% are for a real public option--they just can't express that electorally

[snagglepuss]

3. I'm really shocked Diane Francis wrote this and the National Post published it.

Really shocked. The National Post is extremely right wing. Harper and his neocon cronies who want to destroy public heath care must be going ballistic.

K & R

[CanSocDem]

5. kick & rec