By GottaLaff
Yesterday I posted about
Canadian health care here, and a whole primer on
health care reform myth-busting here. Now
this excellent and very convincing first hand account:
Yes, I know, that headline is going to get a ton of “baloney” responses. Not to mention all the “then go back to Canada” replies from people not interested in really looking at the issue. I’ve heard it all before a million times.
I want to be clear about the purposes of this posting. I’m not going to try and argue for Americans to adopt a single-payer system of universal (not “socialized”) healthcare. Like gun control, the American system is too undermined by lobbyists, corporate interests and mythology to ever really grapple coherently with the issue. But as someone who has lived under both health care systems for considerable periods of time, it angers me to hear the misinformation and lies that these anti-single payer advocates love to spread about Canada every time the debate about improving American health care arises.
So let’s look at the opinion expressed in the above headline. It’s not just my personal opinion. It’s the opinion of a recent Harvard Medical School study that studied the health care of more than 3000 Canadians and 5000 Americans. It was based on the first-ever health survey carried out jointly by the two nations’ official statistics agencies.
[big snip]
But this next paragraph is even more important, because it deals with that great bugaboo that those opposed to single payer like to bring up about the Canadian system – waiting times:
“Lead author Dr. Karen Lasser, primary care doctor at Cambridge Health Alliance and Instructor of Medicine at Harvard commented, ‘Most of what we hear about the Canadian health care system is negative; in particular, the long waiting times for medical procedures. But we found that waiting times affect few patients, only 3.5% of Canadians vs. 0.7% of people in the U.S. No one ever talks about the fact that low-income and minority patients fare better in Canada. Based on our findings, if I had to choose between the two systems for my patients, I would choose the Canadian system hands down.’ ”
Dr. David Himmelstein, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard and co-author of the study:
“We pay almost twice what Canada does for care, more than $6,000 for every American, yet Canadians are healthier, and live two to three years longer.”
More:
So let’s look at three important myth-busters this report contains: 1) Under the Canadian system, people were more likely to have a regular doctor than Americans, and to have fair fewer unmet health care needs 2) About 2. 8 percent of Canadians have to wait longer than Americans to receive certain kinds of health care. That means of every 1000 people, 28 more Canadians have to wait longer. Not exactly the huge lines portrayed by certain American lobbyists, is it? 3) The author of the study, an American doctor, when asked which system she would choose for her patients, took the Canadian system “hands down.”
There is also the fact that the Canadian system costs a lot less for all this great care.
And that’s just one study. I found several others that stated the same observations. They can be easily found via Google. [...]
But sadly, [Obama's health care reform] won’t be single payer. It would be nice, but I’m not stupid. You can count on an avalanche of even more negative misinformation being put forward in the coming weeks. Facts don’t matter in Washington, nor with the mainstream media inside the beltway, who will be happy reporting this in the Politico-style winners and losers model. It’s all about spin. The best we can hope for is a health care system that will be universal in the sense that everyone will be covered.
Finally, one last personal note. The argument in this debate often boils down to who has better care. As I stated above, I’ve lived in both systems for a long time, and I can honestly say the quality of the care in both countries is excellent. I’ve had great doctors and care on both side of the border. Where the Canadian system fair surpasses the American system is in cost and availability. It’s not a perfect system for sure. But if I was a doctor and I had to choose one of the two for my patients, I would pick the Canadian one hands down too.
Overcoming the spin has always been our greatest challenge.
.jpg)