Posted by Michael Wonder on 18 Dec 2017
Canada as single-payer exemplar for universal health care in the United States; a borderline option
18 December 2017 - The late great Uwe Reinhardt still called himself a Canadian decades after moving to the United States, but steadfastly rejected the idea that Canada’s health care system was suitable for transplantation to the United States, even as he celebrated its comparative strengths and championed its principles of universality, cost containment, and equitable access to care.
Reinhardt instead recommended European models and highly regulated multi-payer arrangements as an alternative means to those worthy ends.
Perhaps because of Canada’s adjacency and close relationship with the United States, many policy makers and health care advocates in both nations still seem preoccupied with each other’s systems. Canadians of all political persuasions affirm the superiority of their health care systems by drawing comparisons with the costs and inequities of the US health care system. US opponents of single-payer reforms often demonise Canadian health care, even as US proponents extol their northern neighbour’s approach.
