US VS. CANADA: Who has the best healtcare and why?

I am providing the link to this article but you can only get this editorial if you are a registered user (licensed physician) on the website.

I think this is an interesting take on the US vs. Canadian Health care system.

With all of this talk of healthcare system reform do you agree or disagree? What is missing from this editorial? In order to solve the issue of healthcare in the US we must first identify the problems.....

Here is the article

Contrasting Canada and the United States: What Did They Get Right and Wrong About Healthcare?

Posted 11/07/2008

Jock Murray, MD



Every country is struggling with its healthcare system, and each has solved some problems and incurred others. Remember, no country can afford everything for everyone right now, so pick two. Canada gives everything to everyone, but in some instances, not right now. The USA gives everything right now, but not to everyone.[1-3]

Canada got some things right:

* Five fundamental values
* A National system
* Noncompetition
* Cost controls
* Macromanagement
* A Royal College concept over medical and surgical specialty training, program evaluation, and examination
* Residency training only in university programs.

Canada got some things wrong:

* Inadequate research support
* Global cuts without much planning
* Poor planning of physician, nurse numbers
* Waiting lists.

The USA got some things right:

* Opportunities for the individual
* Innovation and creativity
* Research support
* Benefits for risk takers
* Expertise in specialty care.

The USA got some things wrong:

* 45 million uninsured and an equal number underinsured
* No coherent system
* No overriding principles
* Expensive, complex administration
* Excessive controls on physicians
* Excessive physician paperwork
* Micromanagement
* Powerful competing forces that can resist change
* Expensive specialty care
* Inadequate and complex concept of primary care
* No plan for when profit goes out of the system
* Excessive malpractice.

Some things neither country got right:

* Physician distribution
* Long-term planning
* Patient advocacy
* Support for academic centers
* Big Pharma influence
* Public health support
* Population health perspective
* A rational approach to rationing
* Balance of income for cognitive and proceduralist physicians
* Drug costs.

The different ways Canada and the USA have addressed healthcare is reflected in their history, their feelings about government involvement, and views on individuals vs the group. It is reflected in their mottos. For the USA it is Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness; and Canada it is Peace, Order, and Good Governance.

That's my opinion, I'm Dr. Jock Murray, former Dean of Medicine at Dalhousie University and Chairman Emeritus of the American College of Physicians.

[edit on 18-11-2008 by Cairowoman]

I have never been to Canada.

I don't know anything about their healthcare (other then your OP).

But I do know about Kaiser Permanente here in the States.

Canada can perform root canals with a shotgun and I would still think it superior to Kaiser.

[edit on 19-11-2008 by Lucid Lunacy]