[lbo-talk] Re: Vive La France!

Gar Lipow the.typo.boy at gmail.com
Wed Jun 1 22:29:41 PDT 2005


On 6/1/05, Jordan Hayes <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com> wrote:
>
> > Doug has already noted that numerous studies show the US
> > spends more on health care with poorer outcomes than in Canada ...
>
> I don't think this is relevant to this thread. The total health care
> spending in the US is warped by the extreme costs of high-end care
> that's simply not available in Canada. I think, for the purposes of
> this thread, it's important to keep your eye on my claim: that for the
> same dollars, (average) individual Canadians could (probably) do better
> in the US.
>

OK some points and specific points:

General points: 1) The U.S. spends more per capita on health care than Candada 2) The U.S. spends more as percent of GDP on health care than Canada. 3)The U.S. government spending at all levels combined (Federal state and local) is higher than total Canadian spending - including private spending. 4) USAIAns have lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality rates. 5) Moving from statistics to personal stories: my insured brother in a hick town in Virginia was diagnosed with a ruptured disc in March. He is scheduled for a conference about it July 18th, after which an actual operation will be scheduled. My 83 year old Mom here in Washington State has a medigap policy along with medicare parts A+B. She as diagonosed with basal skin cancer eight weeks ago. The operatio to remove still has not been scheduled. We have waiting lists here too; they are called "first available surgeon".



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list