Health Care: Canada vs. USA
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 09:26AM
I have just finished the final draft of a revised, and considerably updated version of my 1990 book, The Trouble With Canada.
This new edition will be published early September, and will likely be entitled:
The Trouble With Canada ... Still!
A Fresh Look at Canada, 20 Years After the Book that Sparked a Conservative Revolution
One of the chapters is on "health Care"
Below is a Snapshot - one of many included in the book - that summarizes the Canada vs. US health care situation.
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Snapshot
Canadian vs. U.S. Medical Care
Items Canada USA
(2006)
% of Health spending 7% of GDP 7% of GDP
that is public
% of Health spending 3% of GDP 8% of GDP
that is private
Total Spending
on Health Care 10% of GDP 15% of GDP
(public + private)
Number of Doctors
Per 1,000 pop. 2.1 2.4
Number of Nurses 8.8 10.5
Per 1,000 pop.
Average Canadian
Doctor’s salary as %
of American equivalent 42% 100%
# of MRI Scanners
Per million pop. 6.2 26.5
(2006)
# of MRI Exams
Per 1 million pop. 25,500 83,200
(2004-5)
# of CT Scanners
Per million pop. 12 33.9
(2006)
# of CT Exams
Per 1 million pop. 87,300 172,500
(2004-5)
Average age of
Hospital facilities 40yrs 9yrs
(Ontario)
Life expectancy
At birth 80.8 77.8*
% who waited
4 months or longer
for elective surgery 27% 5%
% who waited
2 months or longer
for specialist app’t. 42% 10%
Canada’s net drain
or gain of doctors
leaving or returning
to Canada - 215 per year** note #
percentage of pop.
legally prohibited
from buying private 89.9% 0 %
insurance for necessary
medical services (1)
% Total Personal
Bankruptcies(*#) 0.2 % 0.27%
Ranking of over-all
care among WHO
Member States *** 30 37
Sources: OECD, WHO, Canadian Institute for Health Information, Canadian Health Services Research Foundation
* Racially mixed populations tend to have lower life expectancy than racially homogeneous ones. Experts cite the American drug and crime culture for this lower life-expectancy figure. After age 65 Americans have the highest level care and longevity.
# the phrase “doctors leaving Canada” returned over 20,000 hits on Google, while “doctors leaving USA” returned 1 hit (October 6, 2009).
** The exodus of doctors from Canada is down considerably from the 1990s. The -215 is a net figure. In 1996 the Canadian Institute for Health Information reported that 713 doctors left Canada, about the same number as were graduated from all Canadian medical schools that year! (see Gratzer, Code Blue, p.48). But Gratzer points out that the figure is underStated, because many Canadian medical graduates never practice in Canada at all. They get licenced and immediately leave for their first job, or if graduated from a foreign school do not return home. In 1995 fully 33% of the medical graduating classes at University of Toronto and of Alberta were “leaving the country.” Over $150,000 dollars of their education is covered by Canadian taxpayers.
(*#) From Brett Skinner, “Health Insurance and Bankruptcy Rates in Canada and the United States,” see www.fraserinstitute.org/researchandpublications/publications/6765.aspx
*** such rankings are heavily influenced by the weight they give to an egalitarian provision of “free” care. Treating everyone exactly the same is ranked more highly than treating them well.
(1)Six out of 10 provinces accounting for 89.8% of the national population legally ban the purchase of private insurance for necessary medical services (provided in-province).
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