[denydenydeny]

If a Canadian goes outside of the country to get services that are deemed medically necessary, not experimental, and are not available at home for whatever reason (e.g., shortage or absence of high tech medical equipment; a longer wait for service than is medically prudent; or lack of physician expertise), the provincial government where you live fully funds your care. Those patients who do come to the U.S. for care and pay out of pocket are those who perceive their care to be more urgent than it likely is.

But...if the criticisms of the Canadian health care system are "myths"....then why are Canadians traveling to the US for treatment at all? In the course of this "debunking" she begs many more questions: Why does Canada lack "high tech medical equipment" for example? What does this say about the Canadian system?

National health care works a whole lot better if you have a ten-times-larger neighbor to the south that you can use as a waiting room.

[GlennBeck08]

If the myth about long waits for care was only myth and waits were reasonable to see a specialist, why in the hell did aunt Betty have to wait over a year for a knee replacement?

[muawiyah]

Canadian provincial governments quite regularly send "tough cases" to the United States. That way they avoid the expense of paying the initial costs of installing expensive infrastructure or keeping highly paid super specialists on call all the time.

Then there's Canadian pharmaceutical research costs ~ last time I looked they pour a lot of money into curing rust in wheat but little else. Their leaching off of American research must be worth at least half as much as they spend on medical care.

Regarding Canadians having better health, may I suggest that if you compare the average health of the average white woman in the US with that of the average white woman in Canada, the American is better off because she doesn't have to travel as far to get acces to specialists.

[CSM]

“Those patients who do come to the U.S. for care and pay out of pocket are those who perceive their care to be more urgent than it likely is.”

Ah, she can’t figure out why anyone would have the ability to manage their own physical well being, beyond what the government beaurocrats deem necessary. She can’t figure out why an individual would not cave to dictatorial policies.