Customer Reviews

Universal Health Care: What the United States Can Learn from the Canadian Experience

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This unemotional, factual book gives a good look at the Canadian health care system and shows, among many things, it is not "socialist," and that it delivers excellent care at much less cost. After reading this book (or any of several other excellent ones on the topic of health care reform) one will quickly appreciate that the recent US legislation will do little to solve the problem of delivering excellent health care at reasonable cost because it does little to get the costs under control. While anecdotes seldom provide solutions, sometimes they do identify the problem.

Some time ago (the day Reagan was shot; 1986?) my son broke his leg at Big White, a British Columbia ski area. He was attended by a physician on the hill; something I had never seen at any US area up to that time. After being splinted we transported him to the hospital since we had a station wagon and an ambulance would added nothing. There he was treated, re-x-rayed, bone set, and cast. Our cost: $125 even as nonresidents or citizens. The follow-up costs back in Seattle ran several times more although all that was required was cast removal in due course. Our insurance company, although it reimbursed us for that cost and the follow-up care refused to reimburse us $16.25 for crutches because the Canadian physician had not written a prescription even though they were obviously required considering the injury! The one fact that sticks out to mne is that Canadians spend about 5% of the health care dollar on paperwork and we spend 20-30% depending on whose figures you want to accept.

Please ignore the review above.

A book such as this can assist you in obtaining unbiased information about how the US system CAN learn from what we have here.

Realistically, US capitalistic interests prevent honest, open discussion about health care reform in the states. This book provides the framework of the Canada Health Act, the legislation that guarantees health care for all Canadians.

In an age when 40 million Americans are without health coverage, books like these are important for their attempt to open the minds of others. By examining the principles of the CHA, answers can be found to questions addressing issues such as the lower life expectancy in the US and astronomical costs (6% more as a percentage of GDP than Canada) despite not covering so many people. You may even learn that our medical facilities and services rank among the best in the world, and are accessible without regard to one's ability to pay.

In brief, it can open your eyes to a world beyond Republicans, HMOs and greenbacks. You will come to realize and hopefully appreciate the ideas and values upon which the Canadian health care system was built.

Especially useful for people considering careers in health care, and the many Americans that apply to schools like McGill and U of T.

What we can learn from the Canadian experience is best summarized in the following excerpt from Canada's McCleans weekly magazine March 1 1999:

"For Canadians in need of urgent medical care, the nation's hospitals all too often appear to be in a state of crisis. Horror stories abound--of patients turned away from hospitals, of cancelled surgeries, and cancer patients flown across the country or to the United States for treatment that cannot be delivered closer to home. In Toronto, a 45-year-old cystic fibrosis victim missed out on an urgently needed double lung transplant on Feb. 3; the operation had to be cancelled--and the donated lungs discarded -- because no bed or nursing crew could be found."

Articles abound in McCleans as well as the New York Times, Forbes, etc. in the US about Canada's failing system. Forbes reports Canadian doctors leaving Canada in droves. In fact, skilled people in general are leaving Canada's failed welfare state for the US.

To complete the socialist model perhaps in the authors next book Mr. Armstrong could discuss how the US revert to a command and control economy - you know, like the ones that were so successful in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.