A graphic that depicts the bureaucracy of health care. The caption reads "Blue Cross of Massachusetts employs more people to administer coverage for 2.5 million New Englanders than are employed in all of Canada to administer single payer coverage for 27 million Canadians."
it must be a north thing, canadians have too much cold air to think rationally.
ReplyDeleteI don't know.. it could just mean that, as a private commercial business, Blue Cross is more worried about customer service and thus needs more representatives?
ReplyDeleteI used to have Blue Cross, and the forms were a nightmare. I have Kaiser now, and love it. Never a form, low co-pay, and it's cheaper for the employer as well.
ReplyDeleteI found the source doc http://www.health-insurance-2008.org/united-states-vs-canada.php
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of a great little book called "How to Lie With Statistics"
Found these sources which look decent for the actual figures:
http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparemaptable.jsp?ind=596&cat=5
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/alt_formats/hpb-dgps/pdf/pubs/2001-exp-dep-1980/2001-exp-dep-1980-eng.pdf
While it appears that we Canadians spend less per capita for health care than the highest region of the USA, the pie chart is absurd; looks like it is at most 50% cheaper up North than the highest region in the USA
Some areas (like the South West USA) would only be slightly more expensive than the Canadian national average. And you aren’t comparing apples to apples even then.
Universal health care is great but it has its issues too – by no means is it a panacea up here – Page 23 of the Health Canada study is very telling for me. You can see an unbalanced system where private money is forced into ‘other professionals’ and ‘drugs’ because of legal limitations on private hospitals and private doctors in Canada. Private money is investing in Quasi doctors and Drugs because that is all that is legally allowed.
By no means am I arguing for private health care in Canada. I just find it interesting that many educated Americans that I meet seem to take the incorrect pie chart at face value. We love our universal health care system here, but it is sick for other reasons. There is no such thing as money for nothing and you sick for free.
I love the blog - this entry definitely got me thinking
Last Anonymous mentioned some very important thing, which are often a bit covered, when talking about the health care in Canada. I am selling health insurance with disability insurance so I can see a bit inside. You can use your money only in very limited and specific ways, while the main issues are lacking funds. And many people WANT to pay additional money to get faster or more comfortable treatment, but often it's not possible. Universal coverage is good, you can hardly find here somebody who would prefer the US system, on the other hand, our system is not a fairy-tale land. You get your treatment, but it doesn't mean the quality is always perfect, treatment fast - and the worst thing is, you can't change it, even if you can afford it.
ReplyDeleteTake care!
Lorne
I am a Canadian and every time I went to the Hospital I received good and timely care without paying a cent. It's easy for me to look at the US form of health care and not understand how people could ever believe that it's better. I do believe that any organization that benefits from the US version of health care has vested interest in maintaining it as is.
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