Edward Riley, a doctor who teaches at Stanford University and has strong Oregon connections, has written an op-ed in the Oregonian that's worth sharing, I think. Dr Riley laments the lack of real facts in the debate over Medicare and US healthcare.
His parents retired in Canada, so he became very familiar with Canadian healthcare, from the perspective of a US physician and medical educator.
Compared with the United States, Canada has better health outcomes ..., spends a little over half what we do ..., and Canadians are more satisfied with their health care than any other country in the world. ... Fundamentally, the Canadian system is the same as Medicare in the US.
Riley notes that the debate over Medicare isn't based on facts, but is distorted by profiteers with an enormous financial stake in privatizing the system.
Immediately, someone posted a response with a horror story about a Canadian relative who died of cancer, untreated until he came to the US for help. I have heard these kinds of stories numerous times. But they exactly speak to Dr Riley's point: the arguments about healthcare are sorely lacking real data, and almost always evolve into anecdotal evidence and philosophical firewalls that have little to do with actually providing healthcare.
I frequently visit in the UK. Everyone I've talked to there has some complaint about their system, but I've never met one who would trade theirs for ours.
I do wish the media would take more responsibility to make sure the public has facts to go along with the click-inducing distorted opinion pieces and consequence-free shouting matches. I don't think most Americans see Canadians as evil foreigners. I wish we could get an honest comparison between our system and theirs and adopt what seems to work. I guess "work" depends on what your goal is.
Oh well. Good call for intelligence from Dr Riley, I think.