Friday, November 23, 2007

Healthcare - Canuckistan versus America

As all Canadians are reminded almost daily -‘American-style’ health care is B A D. It’s a given that the Canadian/Cuban/North Korean/Soviet universal healthcare model is the best in the world.

According to a new study by economists at Baruch College in New York - not quite so. William Watson summarizes the results:

The health payoff to higher income ("income-health gradient") is bigger here than in the United States... even though the whole purpose of medicare is to eliminate the effect of income on health. [my bold]

And some small details:

one magnetic resonance imager for every 37,000 Americans, versus one for every 182,000 Canadians.

computed tomography scanners ... one for every 31,000 Americans, versus one for every 87,000 Canadians...

The Japanese ... have even more [CT scanners and MRI’s] than the Americans.

...Americans seem happier with their health care than we are with ours.

...we have better longevity and infant-mortality statistics. But other differences between our societies explain that..

Fifteen percent of older Americans say their health is excellent, versus only 8% of Canadians...

...more Americans than Canadians who have a given condition receive treatment for it.

In several forms of preventive care, we lag the Americans.

Americans have a higher incidence of cancer, we have higher mortality rates...

And, there’s no mention of the fact that "waiting lists" are essentially unheard of in American healthcare.

Now, let’s hear it one more time for Saint Tommy.

Ref also.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well we don't have a perfect system, by any means... but I'd gladly take the one we have versus having to sell everything if I or someone in my family gets really sick.

Anonymous said...

You are already paying for the healthcare through taxes. If you got back all that money most of us could easily afford the insurance and have some left over.

The problem now is that we are stuck with what we have, like it or not. There are NOT enough trained people in the healthcare system to staff what we have now; creating a private parallel system is all but impossible.

Greg said...

Fifteen percent of older Americans say their health is excellent, versus only 8% of
Canadians...


Do I need to point out to you that older Americans have "socialized medicine"? It's called Medicare and it is very, very popular.

JR said...

Greg,

True, sort of. But Medicare (and means tested Medicaid) are taxpayer subsidized INSURANCE plans. Unlike in Canada, U.S. healthcare delivery is largely private.

So, yes, both Canadian and American seniors benefit from 'socialized' medicine but in significantly different ways. And the fact remains that proportionally twice as many American as Canadians think highly of their healthcare systems.