AARP's Response to Claims About the Canadian Healthcare System

A doctor writing for the AARP addresses five claims about the Canadian healthcare system that are often asserted by those opposing healthcare reform in the United States. These include:

• Canadians are flocking to the United States to get medical care. He discusses a study which shows Canadians are not flocking the the US to get care, calling this the most comprehensive study he's seen. Of course, Sarah Palin, an outspoken opponent of reforming the US health care system, calling it socialism, has taken her family to Canada for treatment.
• Doctors in Canada are flocking to the United States to practice. Statistics show this flatly to be untrue, and, doctor satisfaction is higher in Canada than the US.
• Canada rations health care; that’s why hip replacements and cataract surgeries happen faster in the United States. He does not address whether hip replacements happen faster in the US than Canada (one assumes they do unless not elective, however), but notes that Canada allows hip replacements on the elderly and that the elderly in the US who get hip replacements mostly use Medicare, which, in fact, is a single payer system like Canada's.
• Canada has long wait times because it has a single-payer system. He doesn't address the wait time in Canada versus the US (one thus assumes this is true), but, rather, states that wait times are due to cost, and Canada has longer wait times for elective procedures to hold down costs.
• Canada rations health care; the United States doesn’t. His response to this claim is that the United States effectively rations health care by denying it to those who cannot afford it. He cites statistics that show the sick and injured are much more likely to not to get health care in the United States than other countries due to cost.

The author also cites comparisons of various countries' GDP versus health care spending to show the US's spending appears way out of line. (See graph below.) The counter argument some assert is that most of this is end of life spending and at that point individuals in the US devote enormous discretionary spending to preserving their health because that is what they value. There are several problems with that argument, the most trenchant being that life expectancy in the US is actually lower than many other countries! For instance, overall life expectancy (from birth) in Canada is 80.7 while in the US it's 78.2. Like many, I'm  keen on wanting to live that extra 2 1/2 years.