[ExI] Health care discussion

[Damien Sullivan]

On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 07:50:31AM -0400, MB wrote:
> >> As it happens, post-military South America seems to have largely
> >> embraced universal health care.  Peru, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay...
> 
> As to the US neighbor to the north, there is an article here about health care in
> Canada:
> 
> http://www.calgaryherald.com/Health/Canadians+receive+poor+value+health+care+dollars/1584180/story.html

Note that they're comparing Canada to *other countries with universal
health care*.

One problem I've seen cited is that Canadian hospitals get block grants;
most other countries have money follow the patient.  (I think Britain's
NHS uses block grants too; they're not a role model, and live just a bit
longer than Americans.  OTOH they're pretty cheap.)  Canada's also I
think unique in barring docotrs from private practice of things that
Canada's Medicare will pay for (or rather, most practice is private, but
charging more is barred), vs. public-private competition elsewhere.

-xx- Damien X-)