Ok well first of all, your country is like 25 times the size of ours. I can argue at a number of things wrong with American style health care. I'm not saying the Canadian system is perfect, but it adequately is able to protect everyone.
It also shows in the stats, Dr. Barbara Starfield, a university proffessor at John Hopkins Med Institute was interviewed and she said:
"By all measures, Canadians' health is better. Canadians do better on a whole variety of health outcomes,including life expectancy at various ages -- 1, 15, 20, 45, 65, 80, you name it."
America spends waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more money on health care, and you guys are not any healthier. I'm open to the idea of semi-privatization, and while I realize that this creates a two-tier system, and may increase cost, I think governments should put a cap on how much the clinics can charge, and that would solve that problem.
Maternal mortality, Canada destroys the US in that rate:
Maternal mortality shows a substantial gap as well. According to data published last year by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international think-tank, there were 3.4 maternal deaths for every 100,000 births among Canadians compared to a 9.8 among all Americans.
As well as Infant mortality:
Infant-mortality rates also show striking differences between the United States and Canada, according to Dr. Clyde Hertzman, associate director of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. To counter the argument that racial differences play a major role, Hertzman compared infant mortality for all Canadians with that for white Americans between 1970 and 1998. The white US infant mortality rate was roughly six deaths per 1,000 babies, compared to slightly more than five for Canadians.
What about people with mental illnesses?
According to the May-June 2003 issue of Health Affairs: "More than half of Canadians with severe mental disorders received treatment, compared to little more than a third of Americans."
In Canada, if we are going through a medical illness, we don't have that added stress of, OMG! When is my insurance money running out?, or OMG! Does the insurance cover this?, or OMG! How much will this treatement cost me?. Everyone gets the equal treatement they deserve.
And I think that our governement could definately give more funding to health care, but we had a conservative government in my province for many years that shortfunded everything, and privatized a ton of things, therefore increasing the cost of living substantially.
Also, many Americans find themselves in positions where they cannot afford treatement plans. They're much too expensive.
Imagine that the US didn't start a useless war on Iraq. That $500 billion dollars that they spent could have gone to health care.
$500 000 000 000
^
Instead that money went to over 22 000 deaths, and brought you into an ENORMOUS deficit.
Also, if you're worried about cost, Canadians pay about half of what Americans pay for health care:
$2,163 versus $5,198
And since BUsh has taken office, it's become a lot more expensive. You spend 15% of your GDP on health care.
We (Canadians) don't have to worry that being layed off will cause us to lose our health care coverage. And US health care costs skyrocketed after you guys privatized which is why Canadians are so against it.