From the article:

We identified 38 studies comparing populations of patients in Canada and the United States. Studies addressed diverse problems, including cancer, coronary artery disease, chronic medical illnesses and surgical procedures. Of 10 studies that included extensive statistical adjustment and enrolled broad populations, 5 favoured Canada, 2 favoured the United States, and 3 showed equivalent or mixed results. Of 28 studies that failed one of these criteria, 9 favoured Canada, 3 favoured the United States, and 16 showed equivalent or mixed results. Overall, results for mortality favoured Canada (relative risk 0.95, 95% confidence interval 0.92-0.98, p= 0.002) but were very heterogeneous, and we failed to find convincing explanations for this heterogeneity. The only condition in which results consistently favoured one country was end-stage renal disease, in which Canadian patients fared better.

And to add to your comment. I know hundreds of people in Canada, and know no one who has gone to the U.S. for care. I also add, that I grew up 15 minutes from the border, and currently live an hour from the border. So access to the U.S. is a short drive away. Does this mean there hasn’t been some. Sure there have. But it accounts to less than 1/2 of 1% of our population who have. I have a link for that if you want it. I actually provide proof not blather. Pundits against Universal healthcare paint a picture that Canadians are flooding over the border, the facts don’t back it up.
And yes, I do know I pay for it in taxes, but our income tax rates are not that much more than those in the States. However, EVERY Canadian is covered from those taxes. I’ll never have to worry about losing my home to a hospital bill, nor will I ever have to worry about having health insurance if I lose my job.
You have to ask yourself a question, if the U.S. for profit system is so great, why is that no other country in the world wants to copy it?? Does the rest of the world have it wrong and the U.S. have it right??
As far as your provider, I’m sorry for your experience, but our system help save my mother’s life. Maybe you should move to Vancouver, because if a procedure is CMA approved, you get it.

PJ Emeritus on February 17, 2009 at 10:13 AM

Sorry PJ, I live here in Canada, and work in a health care related field. The only ignorance are people like are you, and for example, the post above about the claim that a guy from Toronto who says the best treatment for appendicitis is an airplane ticket to the states. Pure B.S. Do you actually think a person who needs immediate treatment for appendicitis has to wait months to have his/her appendix removed?? Tell me how I’m blathering. Give me a study that shows health outcomes are better in the U.S. than Canada. When I needed immediate care, or my wife or any of my family memebers needed it, they received it. When I needed immediate care when my lung collapsed, did I get it. YES. When my wife needed immediate care for both her C-sections, did she get it. YES When I broke my finger(as my most recent example) did I get immediate care, YES, was x-rayed, splinted and out in less than an hour. Was then referred to a Hand/Limb surgeon. Guess how long I waited. The next working day, but I decided to wait for the week after. Again, x-rayed and examined in less than an hour. Went back 3 weeks later, x-rayed and examined in less than an hour. Surgery was 50/50 on whether it would do anything, so I opted not to have it. How long would I have waited if I wanted it though, a day or two. Our bills, a big fat ZERO. This is just an example of the everyday care that 95% of Canadians enjoy everyday. Do we have to wait for a hip replacement, yes, but when you need immediate care our system is there. PERIOD!! You know Jack about our system PJ. I live it and see it everyday as part of my job. The horror stories you hear make up a VERY, VERY small % of Canadians experiences. Plus the fact they pale in comparison to how many Americans go without care, at all, because they can’t get insurance. Can’t afford the co-pays. Can’t afford the bill afterwards. Or go into bankruptcy to get their care. No Canadian goes through this. The ultimate in rationed care is never going to your doctor, never getting cancer treatment, never getting your hip replaced. Do you some research before you accuse me of blathering. Ancedotal evidence is all you people have.

And you do NOT have to be “dying.”

Please keep your ignorance on that side of the Atlantic.

Oh, of course. Let’s all ignore what EVERY SINGLE CANADIAN says about their healthcare systems who chooses to comment on their FIRSTHAND experiences in favor of your ignorant blather.

People don’t owe you shit. Nobody owes you healthcare, not even the government. It’s a product, just like any other product. Who are these people that are so poor they bitch about having to pay for healthcare?

In Massachusetts, they just passed a law mandating healthcare, which meant I was FORCED by law to get it. So I did and went to see my assigned doctor’s office.

When I got there, it was a room full of about thirty people, babies and what looked like future convicts, and NOBODY else. No receptionist, no nurse, nothing. I sat down on this couch that looked like it was ready to walk away, and after about thirty minutes, a door opens and out walks this ‘doctor’. It was a filthy woman with matted hair and crazy eyes. I wouldn’t have let her treat me if I had lockjaw.

All of you socialist cheerleaders, stop endorsing your crappy healthcare. Some people actually work for a living, and want the option to get quality care for their money. You have every other country in the world. Stay away from the U.S.

Have you been inside an American ER in the past 5 years? Everywhere you look, there are signs explaining that you have the right to be seen, and treated for an emergency condition, regardless of your ability to pay. Google EMTALA sometime.

cs89 on February 16, 2009 at 9:05 PM

In the richest country on earth, if you can’t afford insurance you only get treatment when you’re dying. Thank goodness I live in the UK with our ‘low quality’ ‘rationed’ healthcare.

Copay’s should be on a percentage basis, not fixed dollar amounts, in order to give incentives to seek out lower cost (while still good quality) doctors. Medical care providers should be required to post prices or be able to give an on the spot quote for any medical services they would like to perform, so people can comparison shop. I wish Wal*Mart would slap doctor’s offices in all their Supercenters and introduce the $40 doctor visit.

If insurance companies were smart, they would charge 30% copay, so people would go to Wal*Mart and pay $12, and the insurance company would only have to pick up $28, instead of charging a flat $10 copay and handing the normal doctor’s office another $120.

Let the free market flourish, and put a cap on “pain and suffering” liability awards, and you could drop health care costs in half in this country. Oh, some trial lawyers would be out of work, and doctors might have to find ways to see more patients per hour or else offer good enough care that people are willing to pay their higher prices. We could still offer approriate levels of assistance to those truly in need.

But pretty soon we would be able to comparison shop online with prices and other patients reviews to try to find the best doctor for the best price, and we would be able to keep our health insurance just like we keep our car insurance when we change jobs.

And for those that think it can’t be done, all we would be doing is reverting to how it was done 40-50 years ago.

WE ARE GOING TO BE TAXED OUT OF OUR ASSES TO PAY FOR ALL OF THIS “FREE” STUFF.

I THINK OBAMBI HAS LOGGED IN UNDER VARIOUS NAMES TO TRY TO MAKE PEOPLE THINK CANADA’S SYSTEM DOESN’T SUCK AS BAD AS WE ALL KNOW IT DOES.

STOP IT BARRY, WE ALL ALREADY KNOW BETTER…

As a few have already mentioned, Americans have been sold a bill of goods about bad old Canadas evil health care system.

Here is a benefit no one considers much. In Canada most people don’t talk/worry about medical care or insurance. They don’t worry about being caught uncovered at an awkward moment. They never fear that their savings or home will have to go to cover Medical fees. There is a healthy lowering of stress right there for the entire population.

No system is perfect but Canada’s system is there for every Canadian, all the time. The boogey man stories are just that, stories to keep the AMA on it’s pedestal.

If you’re wealthy I have no doubt the US system is more advanced and efficient. If you’re not, like me, it’s nice to know if something happens I can go somewhere and get treated even if I have no way to pay for it.

psst, psst…guess what…you ARE paying for it, it just comes in the form of exorbitant taxes so you don’t realize you are paying for it. This tax burden crushes people financially and crushes the economic growth of the country and thereby their standard of living. Care to compare the pre-Obama GDP of either Canada or Europe and the US? Do you know what percentage of a Canadian’s paycheck is taken out in taxes before they even get it, and used to fund the government (the biggest component of which is their healthcare expenditures)? A liberal won’t mention that dirty little secret.

I’d be interested to hear some reaction from med school students to the apparent future of American medicine. I have the feeling the enrollment numbers are going to go the way I suspect the military re-up numbers are going to go under Obama.

Patrick S on February 16, 2009 at 1:45

The US medical schools will see their enrollment go down (unless they lower their admission standards to less than the brightest), because the sacrifices people going into medicine have to make are too great for the reward at the end of the line. There will however always be plenty of foreign-educated doctors coming in to replace the shortage of doctors that will result here, because regardless of how bad our system becomes chances are it will be better than where they came from. That is what has happened in England and Canada. Remember a few years back that foreign doctor that tried to blow up the airport in Scotland? They mentioned in the news at the time the fact that they had a shortage of English doctors so had to import them from foreign countries.
The medical school issue does not even address the many doctors in their fifties who will retire rather than submit to government run healthcare.
You always get what you pay for, and if people want “free” healthcare they will get something, but chances are they won’t like what they will get.

I’d rather wait seven hours in a waiting room and see someone than be told immediately to f**ck off because I can’t pay the bill.

alex342 on February 16, 2009 at 6:15 PM

Have you been inside an American ER in the past 5 years? Everywhere you look, there are signs (often English and Spanish) explaining that you have the right to be seen, and treated for an emergency condition, regardless of your ability to pay. Google EMTALA sometime.

You’ll get a bill if you don’t have insurance, and your credit will be affected if you can’t pay, don’t qualify for govt. services, and the hospital doesn’t write off part/all the charges. But you will be seen.

Bitchin’ sleeves! Totally bitchin’ tattoos! Who did the arms?