This past summer a friend from Canada was in the area on business. We invited him and a group of other close friends over for a cookout. One of the couples in the group are very conservative, for example; listen to Fox News on a regular basis, believe global warming is a fallacy, and believe that our current US healthcare system is fine. Needless to say, we have had many a healthy debate, and have managed to still remain close friends. As the party went on, it was inevitable that the discussion would eventually turn to the Canadian healthcare system. And, as anticipated, their questions were founded on the distortions and fallacies as presented by Fox News and Repbulican congress people.
Much to the chagrin of our friends, the esteemed gentleman from Canada provided answers that they did not expect to hear. Our Canadian friend was quite angry with how conservatives and Fox News, in particular, present lies and distortions about the Canadian Healthcare System. He said that when the Canadian government first proposed such a plan, he was dead set against it. Now, he supports the system wholeheartedly.
One of the remarks that was made to him dealt with having to wait a long time for surgery, having to "wait in line" was the actual comment. Our friend replied by saying that there was only one instance in which he knew of anyone having to wait for surgery. A colleague of his in a very rural section of Canada had to wait three months to have knee replacement surgery. He quickly added that the only reason for the wait as that his friend had rescheduled the surgery which resulted in the 3 month wait. In his rural area, there were only two surgeons who did that type of operation. Another colleague of his in suburban Toronto had the same surgery done, and did not have to wait at all because there are more doctors who perform that type of surgery.
This morning, my friend from Canada sent me a copy of an article that appeared in his local newspaper, The Globe and Mail, titled "An inconvenient truth for the GOP: Canada's system is better". This being only my 3rd diary, I am not sure if I posted the link to the article correctly. I will repeat it here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/...
It appeared in yesterday's paper. I would just like to these quotes from the article which are very telling:
Life expectancy is a basic measure of the quality of health care. In the U.S., a citizen will live 77.8 years on average. In Canada, you can expect to live two and a half years longer (80.4 years). Infant mortality is also a vital indicator of health care. In the United States, 6.37 infants die out of every 1,000. In Canada the number is 5.4 out of a 1,000.
But what about the cost differences of the two approaches to health care? Surely our Leviathan-like system, which produces such enviable results, must cost a fortune relative to the U.S. model.
The best measure of health care costs is the percentage a country spends relative to the size of its economy, or its gross domestic product (GDP). Canadians spend about 10 per cent of GDP on health. Americans spend 16 per cent to achieve inferior results on life expectancy and infant mortality.
The authors of the article support also are not happy with the way that their healthcare system is distorted by conservatives.