Canadian-Style Health Care Coming to America?

There's a lot of talk about America's health care system. An ABC news poll found that 62% of Americans are in favor of instituting a Canadian-style health care system in the United States. The maple may be sweeter but is the grass truly greener? Let's compare.

The health care system in the United States has substantial room for improvement. Universal health care seems to be inevitable at this point and Canada's system is often cited as a sterling beacon of success.

It is touted that Canadian health care is better because its citizens don't have to pay anything.

But. . . In general, the average Canadian will pay 5-10% more in income taxes than his American counterpart. There are other hidden costs as well, such as an extra 2% tax specifically for health care. Also, 22 percent of Canada's total tax revenues are used to fund its health care system. So not only do these higher tax rates slow the economy as a whole, Canadians are indeed paying for their health care.

Canadians are not only paying for their health care through increased taxes, but are paying a steep price with their health.

Don't get me wrong, Americans are clearly not the example of "healthy living" the world should strive for, but our health care system is arguably the reason so many can live unhealthy and irresponsible and yet still manage to live long, relatively healthy lives.

In the Journal of the American Heart Association, it reported that Canadian heart attack patients run a 17 percent higher risk of dying than those in the U.S.

The incidence of breast cancer is greater in Americans than Canadians, and yet the mortality rate for breast cancer is actually greater in Canada. Per 100,000 people, 90.7 Americans develop breast cancer, and 30.2 cases result in death. In Canada, 76.8 will develop breast cancer, and yet 32.6 will result in death. To put it in another way, more Canadians die of breast cancer, even though more Americans develop it.

American men experience a 40 percent greater likelihood of developing prostate cancer, yet the mortality rates are basically equal.

And then there's the wait times. . .

These can be accessed at the Canadian Institute for Health Information, as well as myriad of other sources. 74 percent of Canadians say they are concerned about these wait times.

Canadians will wait an average of 12-17 weeks (3-4 months) after being referred by a general practitioner to a specialist. The wait times for minor surgeries can last 10 months. The examples aren't even shocking anymore and are numerous and well documented. What is most important for discussion is: Why?

It's capitalism verses socialism. Think I'm joking?

"[Canadian hospitals] don't fund excess capacity," according to Sharon Sholzberg-Gray, chief executive of the Canadian Healthcare Association.

Perhaps that's why Americans enjoy a greater number of "beds per person" than Canada, and far shorter wait times- because government-run hospitals don't have to compete for patients!

When something is FREE, people simply don't shop around, there is no competition, and so prices go up and quality goes down. Just imagine turning the American health care system into something like the BMV. Yeah, I know. . .

The American Way?

The point here is not to poke criticism at Canada for the sake of demeaning the country. The fact is, Canadians live healthier lives, live longer lives, and aren't nearly as obese as Americans. I would argue that Americans in large part take for granted what they have.

Finally, there is the problem of 46 million Americans without health insurance. This statistic alone is perhaps the single greatest argument in favor of Canadian-style health care. So let's take a look at this number in more detail.

Many of these 46 million Americans (8 million are children) are actually uninsured only temporarily, such as between jobs. The actual number of chronically uninsured Americans is more like 25 million. This is clearly still disturbing but we're getting somewhere.

Of these 25 million, over 3 million are children The reason this is incredible is because these 3 million children are ALL eligible for Medicaid or other children's health programs and have never been enrolled by their parents We can then deduce that, at an average rate of 2 children per household, there are 3 million irresponsible parents most likely without insurance. Now we are now looking at 19 million legitimately uninsured. (Note: This number of 19 million is not exact or even provable statistically, it is a number based on logical conclusion of other facts.)

Federal law in the United States still states that it "ensures public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay." Not to mention free clinics that provide non-emergency care to poor and uninsured. The National Association of Free Clinics said that its member clinics provide $3 billion to 3.5 million people each year.

According to the U.S. Census, 37 million people are living "in poverty" in America. Nearly all of these people would qualify for some type of government program. There are, however, only 13 million adults enrolled in Medicaid.

The conclusion then is that these 19 million uninsured Americans are either living in poverty or they are living above poverty and simply elect not to purchase insurance. If the former, then they have little to worry about since the taxpayers will pick up the tab anyway. If the latter, it is statistically reasonable to assume that many have poor priorities and spending habits which should not be the responsibility of responsible taxpayers.

I worked for a health insurance company for a year (I will never do it again) and during that span I spoke to hundreds and hundreds of people without health insurance. One of the most amazing and common scenes I experienced on a daily basis was the person who "could not afford insurance." Yet, they all seemed to drive new cars, have big-screen HDTV's, and ten bazillion satellite channels.

So you want to make taxpayers provide free health insurance to people who don't even make insurance a priority on their own? Who thinks this makes sense? This is legal plunder, not freedom.

Sure I've generalized a bit here, and I'm the first to say there are exceptions, but generalizing is often the only way to look at the big picture. There are problems with American health care, I completely agree. But "Universal health care" is not the answer. Canada is beautiful but the hospital grass is not greener there. Please, stop relinquishing your personal responsibilities to the federal government and many of our current problems will be solved, I promise.

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Sources:
http://www.gdsourcing.ca/works/CIHI.htm
http://www.freeclinics.us/
http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=19
http://www.census.gov