[lbo-talk] NEJM sez: Single payer would solve all US's healthcare problems

[Shane Taylor]

So, why is Canada the standard?  A couple of years ago there was a WHO
comparative study of health care systems the world over, and the US
ranked in the thirties, but not too radically distant than Canada.  The
French came out on top.  How does the French system differ from the
Canadian?  As I recall, they still paid less per capita than Americans
for health care.

-- Shane

From: Michael Pollak fwd'd:


> [Isn't the New England Journal of Medicine pretty
> much the official house organ of American Medicine?]
>
> Aug 21, 2003
> Financial Times
> FRONT PAGE - FIRST SECTION: Tax-funded healthcare
> 'could save US $200bn'
>
> By Christopher Bowe in New York
>
> Switching to a government-funded health system
> like Canada's would save the US $200bn a year by
> cutting administrative costs, enough to pay for all
> 41m uninsured American, according to two new
> studies.
>
> The reports claim that the complex paperwork
> involved in the US system costs three times as
> much per head as in Canada, and that nearly
> one-third of the more than $1,000bn of US
> healthcare spending goes on bureaucracy.
>
> A study published today in The New England Journal
> of Medicine found that the US would have saved
> $209bn in 1999 if administrative costs had been
> at the Canadian level.
>
> A separate report by Harvard University and Public
> Citizen, the consumer watchdog, estimates that in
> the current year a US national health system would
> save $286bn.
>
> That sum would be enough to insure the 41m
> Americans without healthcare coverage and to
> give all seniors a prescription drug benefit.
>
> "Americans spend almost twice as much per
> capita on healthcare as Canadians who have
> universal coverage and live two years longer," said
> Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, author of the NEJM study.

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