I'm too old to fight wars, and you couldn't defend your position if your life depended on it. Go ahead #juan, compare apples and apples and let's see how great your system is functioning.
Apples to apples?
First of all, in Canada everyone is covered. In the U.S. they are not. In Canada, medical care does not depend on the ability to pay. In Canada, doctors, not accountants decide on your treatment. Wait times for some specialists will eventually be fixed. More and more hip and knee replacement surgeries are being done in Canada.
The Health Status of Canadians
Many factors affect a person's health. Throughout the world, economic status has a strong impact on illness, disability and mortality. Where a person lives, either in urban or rural areas, affects service delivery and costs. Age is also a factor-- young people and the elderly have distinct health concerns. Gender must also be considered because women tend to live longer than men but suffer more from chronic poor health. Jobs and the workplace play their part through exposure to hazards that can affect health such as chemicals, noise, radiation, infectious agents and psychosocial stress.
Canadians have a very favourable health status. Canada's high ranking on the United Nations Human Development Index is due, in large measure, to Canada's health care system.
6 The length of time a person could be expected to live (life expectancy) is widely used to show health status. As of 2002, the average life expectancy at birth for Canadians was 82.1 years for women and 77.2 years for men, which is among the highest in the industrialized countries.
7 The number of deaths of children under one year (infant mortality) is another widely used measure to demonstrate health status. Canada's infant mortality rate for 2002 of 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births is one of the lowest in the world.
8
The good health status of Canadians is based on more than health care services. Health is now considered to be a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease or illness. This approach includes social, economic and physical environmental factors that contribute to health. Focusing on health promotion, public health, population health and prevention aims to improve the health of an entire population and to reduce health inequities among population groups.