The Great Debate
i loVe how Canada is pretty much the worst nightmare of the doomsayers (Socialism worse even than Taxachusetts or Regulafornia), but it's actually doing Quite well for itself...
Literacy: 99% (same as U.S.)
Per Capita GDP: $39,183 (big enough to make The G-8)
9,984,670 sq km (bigger than the U.S.)
33,000,000 people (between Australia and England)
"LOOK AT THEIR HEALTHCARE!" the unfair and unbalanced scream.
Okay, let's ACTUALLY look at it -instead of just spreading gossip...
Infant mortality rate: 5.04 deaths/1,000 live births (BETTER than our 6.26)
Life Expectancy: 81.23 years (BETTER than our 78.11)
Health System Performance Rank by the W.H.O. by: (BETTER than our #37)
Happiness Ranking in university psychological study: 10 (BETTER than our #23)
"WELL, IT'S ALL ABOUT COST EFFICIENCY!" the news spinners scream.
Okay, let's ACTUALLY look at it -instead of just spreading gossip...
Per Capita Spending:
#1 $4,271 United States
#2 $3,857 Switzerland
#7 $2,697 Germany
#8 $3,857 France
#9 $2,243 Japan
14 $1,939 Canada
18 $1,675 United Kingdom
So... we spend TWICE as much as Canada and the U.K.?! Even i didn't realize it was THAT bad. What a wa$te.
If their healthcare is better by Infant Mortality, better by Life Expectancy, better by Cost Efficiency, and better by every other metric i could find out there, by WHAT measure, by what formula could one POSSibly say it's "worse"? I'll tell you how... LIES > truth. Don't believe in hype. Believe in facts.
Although, and i don't mean to brag, we aRe the best gorramn country evar. ("America! Designed By Geniuses to Be Run By Idiots.") My patriotism doesn't change the fact that we are most definitely NOT, by any measure other than wishful thinking, "the best healthcare system in the world". As awesome as we aRe, we can aLways do better.
CIA Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html
World Health Organization http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada
University of Leicester http://www.le.ac.uk/users/aw57/world/sample.html
Nationmaster.com http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_spe_per_per-health-spending-per-person