Health care reform in the United States brings Canada into the discussion.
Gabriela Perdomo – As American congressmen and women grapple with a mandate to reform the country’s problematic health care system, the public is being bombarded with information, true and false, about what they can expect from such changes.
Gabriela Perdomo – As American congressmen and women grapple with a mandate to reform the country’s problematic health care system, the public is being bombarded with information, true and false, about what they can expect from such changes.
U.S. president Barack Obama wants a health care bill to become law before the end of 2009. Americans are watching and listening intently what commentators, journalists, experts and politicians have to say about the future of a system that is literally eating away the national budget, at a rate of 16 per cent of the country’s GDP, and in which about 47 out of 307 million people lack insurance.
Inevitably, Canada’s universal, public-run system has been put under the spotlight in the midst of the heated debate. North of the 49th parallel, the law states that all Canadian residents are entitled to access services provided by provincial and territorial governments and insured by the State. In the U.S., health insurance is provided by employers, or through the federal programs Medicaid and Medicare for the elderly, the disabled and the poor. All insurers are private.
The Obama administration is not seeking to emulate Canada’s single-payer system, but rather to create a public option to compete against private insurance companies. Nonetheless, some opponents to health care reform are trying to link Obama’s plan to the Canadian model, by showing that "socialized medicine" is not the way to go.
Other critics, on the other hand—including Dr. David Scheiner, Obama’s former physician—think a Canadian-style system should be implemented, and censure the president’s plan for not going far enough.
Health care is the single most important domestic issue in the United States at this point, not unrelated to the other major issue, the economy. It is also a highly political debate, which is why understanding—and shaping—public opinion is crucial for everyone.
In an Angus Reid Strategies poll conducted in July, respondents in both Canada and the U.S. were asked to assess a television ad in which a Canadian woman says that the American health care system saved her life, adding, "If I’d relied on my government for health care, I’d be dead." Fully 68 per cent of Americans described the ad as informative and almost half (44%) also thought it was honest. In Canada, most respondents (58%) called the ad deceiving and 46 per cent thought it was unfair.
Following the trail of public opinion on health care on both sides of the border is crucial. Only 31 per cent of Americans have a positive view of their country’s health system, according to another Angus Reid Strategies poll conducted just two weeks ago. In Canada, the same poll found that 65 per cent of respondents review their own health care system positively.
Despite the clear discontent with the status quo, Americans are not ready to adopt Obama’s plan just yet. Rasmussen Reports found in early July that 46 per cent of respondents favour the president’s proposal, while 49 per cent are against it. In Canada, the picture is also not as rosy as it may seem. Angus Reid Strategies surveyed 1,000 Canadians in June and found that the universal health care system is a source of national pride for 58 per cent of respondents. And while a significant number of Canadians are willing to pay money to travel abroad to find health assistance, fewer Americans would do the same.
Seventeen years ago, then first lady Hillary Clinton failed to overhaul American health care. It is hard for any U.S. resident to deny that change is much needed, or to ignore that the current situation is plainly unfair. In Canada, long wait times and limited availability of doctors and nurses mark an ongoing debate about the possibility of introducing a two-tier system that would combine public and private services.
The debate about health care reform in the U.S. has put not only the Canadian system, but also the French, Dutch, British and even the Cuban systems under the spotlight. But because of their proximity, both culturally and geographically, perhaps the comparisons between the U.S. and Canada are the most relevant and interesting.
Both countries operate under completely different systems and certainly have their own serious flaws. It will be fascinating to see if the two North American neighbours meet in the middle one day and create a unique system that suits both sides, and makes both peoples proud.
