canadiancomment

Our opinions and advice to the world. Updated whenever we get around to it.

So Boring I Couldn't Come Up With A Title

Before you read the actual post here I'ld just like to say that I'm totally amazed at the amount of time Canadians spend talking about healthcare. I can't imagine a more boring subject being discussed so often by so many people. If you know of something that will out do healthcare in this area let me know.

Anyways on to the post...

CTV is reporting today that Americans are happier with the quality of their health care than Canadians are.

The headline is a bit much considering the results don't really indicate much of a difference, 42% of Americans vs 39% of Canadians view their health care as excellent. Its the same story on the negative end where 13% of Americans vs 10% of Canadians view their health care as poor.

So all in all it seems that Americans are just as happy with their health care system as Canadians are. This doesn't really make a whole lot of sense given all of the Liberal and NDP denunciations of the American health care system. According to the Liberals, if the Conservatives implement an American health system, we'll all die horrible deaths with those who are lucky enough to survive spending their days scouring the country in search of prescription drugs.

But really it's kind of sad that the health care debate for this election has reverted back to the usual talking points:

1) Conservatives will destroy healthcare,
2) Liberals won't fix it but at least they won't destroy it and
3) the NDP will throw so much money at health care that there wouldn't be a dime left over for anything else

It's sad in the sense that our health care system WILL have to change. The system cannot stay stagnant forever. And contrary to what the Liberals will tell you, throwning a few billion at it every couple of years will do nothing but patch up a few cracks, the substructure will still remain unsound.

And before you go, here is a little thought experiment for you: Amercians and Canadians spend roughly the same amount per capita on health care and seem to end up with similar satisfaction levels. If for the past 50 years, the health care systems of both countries were totally isolated from each other and the rest of the world, which country would be considered to have the better health care system today?

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