“A study by Harvard Medical School researchers in the July 2006 issue of the American Journal of Public Health finds that U.S. residents are less healthy than Canadians.” (Another study shows Americans are less healthy than the English!)
Quotes from the study leaders:
Lead author Dr. Karen Lasser, primary care doctor at Cambridge Health Alliance and instructor of medicine at Harvard, commented, “Most of what we hear about the Canadian health care system is negative, in particular, the long waiting times for medical procedures. But we found that waiting times affect few patients, only 3.5 percent of Canadians vs. 0.7 percent of people in the U.S. No one ever talks about the fact that low-income and minority patients fare better in Canada. Based on our findings, if I had to choose between the two systems for my patients, I would choose the Canadian system hands down.”
“These findings raise serious questions about what we’re getting for the $2.1 trillion we’re spending on health care this year,” said Dr. David Himmelstein, associate professor of medicine at Harvard and study co-author. “We pay almost twice what Canada does for care, more than $6,000 for every American, yet Canadians are healthier, and live two to three years longer.”
Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, also an associate professor of medicine at Harvard and study co-author, commented: “Our study, together with a recent study showing that people in England are far healthier than Americans, is a terrible indictment of the U.S. health care system. Universal coverage under a national health insurance system is key to improving health. A single-payer national health insurance system would avoid thousands of needless deaths and hundreds of thousands of medical bankruptcies each year. In 1971, Congress almost passed national health insurance. Since then, at least 630,000 Americans have died because they failed to act. How much longer must we wait?”
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