[ExI] How to get a healthy country

[J. Andrew Rogers]

On Oct 16, 2007, at 9:43 PM, Anna Taylor wrote:
> I would assume this is in relevant to the fact that
> Canadians have an unlimited health care system.  As a
> Canadian, i'm proud that every hospital provides some
> kind of emergency assistance.  It can't provide the
> highest level of manufacturing as it's busy trying to
> provide for all.


Here is the monkey wrench, and I can't fully explain it so don't ask  
me to:  healthcare outcomes follow roughly the same distribution as a  
function of individual income as they do in the US.  There may be  
nominal equality of access as far as the Canadian public healthcare  
systems is concerned, but there is not an equality of outcome for  
Canadians.

Clearly the picture is a bit more complicated and what you have  
actually bought (even if it is just social righteousness and peace of  
mind) is not what you seem to think you have bought.


> I would agree that US may have five
> times as many MRI machines per capita as Canada and
> guaranteed shorter waits for such machines but at
> least they are available to all individuals.


MRIs are available to all individuals in the US as well, though the  
routes to them may vary depending on your situation.  The US has de  
facto universal healthcare even though it does not have it  
officially.  A lot of the healthcare argument is about whether or not  
to make the "de facto" into "official".

The problem with your reasoning is that you are effectively denying  
MRI access to a much broader swath of the population than the small  
minority that hypothetically might be denied in the US.   Have you  
looked at the average wait times for MRIs in Canada?

Does it count as "universal access" if you die or suffer permanent  
injury in the intervening months while waiting for your scheduled MRI  
because treatment was not possible?  Is it "universal access" if I  
put a million dollars at the bottom of Lake Tahoe for every man,  
woman, and child in the country that can find it?  Technically yes,  
in reality no.

Which may, in fact, help explain why Canadian healthcare outcomes are  
a function of income the same as they are in the US:  a timely MRI is  
right next door in the US if you don't mind paying for it.


Cheers,

J. Andrew Rogers