Harvard Medical School says health care better in Canada than U.S.A

I saw this report on Canadian television yesterday but was unable to get on my computer to post so am doing it now. I'm also posting a thread I started in Jan. of 2005 in answer to an American DUer who asked me to post my feelings about the Canadian health care system.
Here's what I posted at the time, followed by the address for the report I saw yesterday from the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Steffie Woodhandler of Harvard said she would greatly advise Canadians NOT to go to privatized health care like they have in the U.S.A:

The Truth about health care in Canada (by request) Wed Jan-26-05 03:22 PM

I received a message in my inbox asking me to do a post about the state of health care in Canada.....Here is what I can tell you:
This is a big country, and you can find people to say just about anything with regards to just about everything...So you will find people who (for whatever reason) will say that our health care system is causing people to die in the streets for lack of care...This is ludicrous...I have heard or read things said by people advocating for privatization of our health care system, that
are completely false..I can tell you that in my family, my husband had care from one of the top heart specialists in the world (he's in Toronto), and successful and timely cataract surgery....We do have to wait for elective surgery, but I've never heard of anyone dying for needed surgery...You already know about our drugs and the vast difference in prices here and in your country...I have heard American politicians on TV say things in order to scare the American public....They say we don't have a choice in the doctor we want...FALSE...We choose our own....I myself have changed doctors in the past several years...And all Canadians have access to all specialists, treatments, and surgery.....They say the Government runs health care and makes all the decisions...Again FALSE....The doctors and hospitals run things and send the bills to the government for payment...Period...The most recent poll I know of on the subject shows that (I forget the exact amount) somewhere between 90% to 95% of Canadians want to keep our present system.....We aren't perfect and can certainly be improved, and the government has recently done a study and as a result is putting more money into the system, but I honestly wish the good people of your country would have the benefit of a similar system....By the way, during the last few days I saw in the news the case of the American man who accidentally shot himself in the head with a nail gun...They said he has no insurance and is stuck with a bill of $100,000....That is insane.....Anyway, I've gone on long enough about
this....Don't let anyone convince you Canadians want to go to privatization....It's just not true.....Good luck...

Here's yesterday's report on CTV:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060530/canada_us_healthcare_060530/20060530?hub=Canada

with..."other experts?...well they're not so sure." That was ALL she said about the report and she never said who these other experts were! No doubt they would be the right wingers who I see on American TV all the time saying outrageous things about our health care.

That was ALL she said about the report and she never said who these other experts were!

Just like CBS anchor Katie Couric's "We'll obviously have to look into that and clarify that to our viewers at a later date" comment when confronted with her lie about Democrats taking money from Abramhoff.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/01/26.html

Well, it's been 4 months now and still no "clarification"

Health insurance should be UNIVERSAL.

to help persuade the non-believers?

The real reasons the USA doesn't have a system like Canada are:

Greedy rich people don't want to help pay for poor people's medical care, and don't have to.

Greedy medical & insurance industries want to rake in all the money they can.

As a result, our medical care system is not only inferior to Canada's, but also more expensive, overall.

I have bookmarked your source for future reference, when some right winger repeats all the claims you have exposed as lies.

democracies have. Universal health care is universally in effect in all democracies except for the U.S.A...That's WRONG!

we'd have some form of universal health care. It's a testament to the power of the corporatist noise machine that so many of the Hugh Moran-types (who often could stand to benefit the most from universal health care) vote against universal health care.

Other enlightened social democracies have it...it's about time we got it too. Our "liberal" media here moan about how bad Canada's system allegedly is...then I run it by my Canadian friends and they say "Oh? That's news to me...we love it." If the US system was so great, how come every time in IRC chat when I'd lament the problems we've had with health care did my friend launch into a stirring text rendition of "O Canada"? :D

Sounds like a case of the True North strong and free, and healthy to boot. Oy oy oy.

Todd in Beerbratistan

I never had to wait for anything - emergency room service, an office visit to remove splinter from my hand or a cardiac stress test for Antarctic deployment.

I completed my deployment physical (MD office physical with lab work, dental exam, hospital cardio stress test) within a week on 3 days notice. The whole thing cost 1/3 of what I have paid in the past for similar physicals in the US (and it took me 3 weeks in the States to complete the same physical).

Morans that complain about the "failure" of the Canadian health care system do not know what they are talking about.

Dr. Steffy Woolhandler, the Harvard doctor who was involved in the study was on Canadian TV a couple of days ago and she was very vocal in advising Canada not to go down the privatization route, but to stick with our universal health care.