Someone, an American friend of a friend, commented on Facebook:
Some Americans think that the Canadian care is inferior. What I have heard is that there are longer waiting periods. Also, I have heard that Canadians come to the states for more timely service or even better service, i.e. our doctors are better. I don’t know if any of this is true, but one thing I know to be true: we have plenty medical bankruptcies, and you have none.
If the first part was true, generally, then U. S. life expectancy and infant mortality would be a lot better than it is. I am sure that any individual’s experience will vary– there are good and less than good doctors in both countries. There are definitely areas of the U.S. that have lost their hospitals and have challenges finding family medicine practitioners, as in Canada. Canadian hospitals and physicians are generally as competent as their U. S. counterparts. But the difference in the catastrophic impact on personal finance is absolutely astounding. Europeans and Canadians alike just find it shocking that America refuses to adopt universal health care because the advantages we see every day are so, so significant.
The U. S. pays twice as much for the same procedures as we do in Canada. The U. S. system by it’s own principles is supposed to result in more efficient, cost-effective care: it does the opposite. The administrative overhead is colossal, compared to Canada’s far more efficient system.
I have often considered that if the American system resulted in more competition, for price and quality, and resulted in lower costs and better care (for all– not just the rich), it worth considering seriously as an alternative. But in that respect, it has failed.