According to the Mercury News, California state lawmakers introduced a bill to create a single-payer healthcare system. And as usual, the talking points used by opponents return, "'It’s been a disaster in countries like Canada,' said Sally Pipes, president and CEO of the conservative Pacific Research Institute, based in San Francisco."[1].
So, has it been a disaster in Canada. Well one way we could determine whether it's a "disaster" is to see how many people are leaving Canada to go elsewhere for healthcare. "0.13 percent of Canadians and 0.08 percent of Americans who flee their countries for health care"[2]. On the surface it looks like Canadians flee to other countries for healthcare a tiny bit more, however this can be easily explained when you consider that "an estimated 75 percent of Canadians live within 161 kilometers (100 miles) of the U.S. border"[3]. I mean if that many live that many people live that close to the border, and the healthcare system is a "disaster" you would expect that number to be way higher. Not to mention the fact that this is the amount of people leaving Canada period, not how many come to the USA for treatment.
Or if it was such a disaster I bet Canadians would hate their national and local systems.
Nope, Canadians still like their healthcare system quite a bit, I mean 70% local, 73% national isn't even close to a horrible approval rating. The national number beats out the US' by 17% and the local is just 11%. And they get all of this and spend less of their GDP of healthcare too, we in the USA spend 17.1% of our GDP on healthcare in total [4], meanwhile Canada spends 10.4% of their GDP on healthcare in total [5]. So we spend way more money for a system that barely makes people happier.
And a lot of this is waste too, like all the administrators we need to keep our current system working, just at the private insurers alone we spend anywhere from $154 billion to $233 billion[6]. And this isn't even counting the ridiculously high prices we pay for drugs in the USA and other procedures[7]. And one of the major reasons for this is the way Medicare Part D was set up in 2003 banned the federal government from negotiating with drug companies[8]. Gee, I wonder what happens to prices when a major consumer comes in and will pay whatever you want, it's almost like you'll price it higher.
Sources
[1]: http://bayareane.ws/2kFVipm
[2]: http://bit.ly/2muRM2u
[3]: http://on.natgeo.com/1MdRYyS
[4] : http://bit.ly/2la7cbh
[5] : http://bit.ly/2mnky65
[6] : http://bit.ly/2mnlK9w
[7] : http://bit.ly/2lk1cO3
[8] : http://bit.ly/2eCwJby
So, has it been a disaster in Canada. Well one way we could determine whether it's a "disaster" is to see how many people are leaving Canada to go elsewhere for healthcare. "0.13 percent of Canadians and 0.08 percent of Americans who flee their countries for health care"[2]. On the surface it looks like Canadians flee to other countries for healthcare a tiny bit more, however this can be easily explained when you consider that "an estimated 75 percent of Canadians live within 161 kilometers (100 miles) of the U.S. border"[3]. I mean if that many live that many people live that close to the border, and the healthcare system is a "disaster" you would expect that number to be way higher. Not to mention the fact that this is the amount of people leaving Canada period, not how many come to the USA for treatment.
Or if it was such a disaster I bet Canadians would hate their national and local systems.
 |
| Source : [4] |
Nope, Canadians still like their healthcare system quite a bit, I mean 70% local, 73% national isn't even close to a horrible approval rating. The national number beats out the US' by 17% and the local is just 11%. And they get all of this and spend less of their GDP of healthcare too, we in the USA spend 17.1% of our GDP on healthcare in total [4], meanwhile Canada spends 10.4% of their GDP on healthcare in total [5]. So we spend way more money for a system that barely makes people happier.
And a lot of this is waste too, like all the administrators we need to keep our current system working, just at the private insurers alone we spend anywhere from $154 billion to $233 billion[6]. And this isn't even counting the ridiculously high prices we pay for drugs in the USA and other procedures[7]. And one of the major reasons for this is the way Medicare Part D was set up in 2003 banned the federal government from negotiating with drug companies[8]. Gee, I wonder what happens to prices when a major consumer comes in and will pay whatever you want, it's almost like you'll price it higher.
Sources
[1]: http://bayareane.ws/2kFVipm
[2]: http://bit.ly/2muRM2u
[3]: http://on.natgeo.com/1MdRYyS
[4] : http://bit.ly/2la7cbh
[5] : http://bit.ly/2mnky65
[6] : http://bit.ly/2mnlK9w
[7] : http://bit.ly/2lk1cO3
[8] : http://bit.ly/2eCwJby
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