Canada’s Health Care System Better than the US But Worse than Everywhere Else…
I harp on this issue time and time again on Facebook, because it seems like it just keeps coming back around. As the latest Commonwealth Fund report shows, once again, Canada’s health care system is better than this US!!! Yeah Baby!!! woo hoo!! Only we ALSO SUCK SO BAD in comparison with ALL the other wealthy countries! (Wait, what, no woo hoos?) The comparisons with Australia and NZ are particularly telling.
Both of those countries have similar political arrangements and geographical and demographical attributes to Canada. They are both relatively small in population, but thinly populated relative to their massive land area, they have high immigration levels and are also facing similar issues in dealing with historical health care and other inequalities. However, they both kick our ass when it comes to administrative efficiency, equity and health care outcomes. And not just by a little bit at the margins, they totally, completely beat us by a long-shot both comparatively and absolutely.
What is even more important is that while Canada spends 10.8% of GDP on health care, Australia and NZ spend less (9.4% and 9.1% respectively) so the problem is NOT that we need to spend more money. We need to spend smarter and more efficiently.
But we never seem to pay attention to this issue. The only thing anyone ever wants to talk about is how we are better than the US.
Newsflash, people!! Just being better than the US at health care is just not good enough, never was, never will be!!! Why is this never an issue come election time? Why are we so damn dumb, smug and complacent? This drives me f’ing insane!!!