| SVMc: First of all, no, 40% of the population isn't denied medical care. There's 30-40 million people (including illegals) who don't have insurance, but that doesn't mean that none of them can afford care. Actually, a lot of younger people who could afford insurance or get it through work choose to go without it because they never use it. I had medical insurance for about 3 years before I ever used it, and you can bet I considered cancelling it because I just don't need that much medical care. A lot of wealthier people also go without medical insurance, because they can afford to pay for care out of their own pockets.
Also, as to Americans spending more on health care than Canadians:
"Yes, Canada does spend less than 8 percent of GDP on health care vs. our 14.5 percent. But we spend much more on our elderly population than the Canadians do. This kicks up the costs because 30 percent of health-care dollars for an individual are spent in the final year of life." Larry Elder, The Ten Things You Can't Say In America
Another part of the reason for our higher priced health care (discussed in the aforementioned book) is that we have extremely strict laws regarding who can and can't become a doctor - so strict that there hasn't been a new medical school opened in the US in over half a century because of the overly strict controls Congress placed on them, due mainly to the AMA. Because of this, the number of doctors in the US has risen far more slowly than the general population (in fact, during the 1980s, the number of doctors fell while the general population rose), meaning more demand than supply, meaning higher prices. If we had a freer market in regards to health care, we'd be kicking your asses cost wise.
As far as waiting lines for Canadian hospitals not being as long as I claimed, you may be right that emergency services aren't that bad, but as for non-emergency care:
"People in Canada wait in lines for hip replacements. According to an orthopedic surgeon in Ontario, the wait for an office appointment is four to eight months, and another twelve to twenty two months for the surgery. So, many Canadians head south of the border, and for ten thousand dollars they get a new plastic hip." Larry Elder, The Ten Things You Can't Say in America
And, according to that same source, the Canadian government even had contracts with American hospitals to treat Canadian patients for them, because their hospitals couldn't handle the patient load.
No, you DON'T have a better health care system than we do. You spend less partly because we spend more on our elderly citizens (because they don't have to wait a year or two for a hip replacement), and partly because our government has tried too hard to socialize health care and has placed too many restrictions on health care, not because they don't have enough involvement. |