Canadians talk to Americans about health care

[Reason]

YouTube - Canadians talk to Americans about health care (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88KmmR4d5Ig)

[AutoDas]

You're becoming just as annoying as TW by just posting videos.

[tnvoter]

best quote someone makes about people who have to wait with crippling injuries:

"...small price to pay for free"

[Reason]

You're becoming just as annoying as TW by just posting videos.

WTF are you talking about?

How is posting a video any different than posting a news article?

I post videos/articles I found interesting and would like to see other people's opinions on.

[ChaosControl]

WTF are you talking about?

How is posting a video any different than posting a news article?

I post videos/articles I found interesting and would like to see other people's opinions on.

What about your opinion on them?

Not just you though, I see this often here and other places. People post videos or articles just the same as if I clicked some link on a newsfeed. Provide a little commentary. Maybe a summary and reaction to the video would be a good thing.

[RevolutionSD]

These interviews are bullshit. They were obviously bating these people to react negatively to the ad. A scientific study would be far preferable.

[coyote_sprit]

I closed out of it after I realized that is was a socialist suck fest.

[The_Orlonater]

Most of these people were just equivocating. The majority of them don't look like they always go to the hospital anyway. Blank statements like, "Oh, I think the majority..." are totally useless. I bet most of those people believe we have a free market health care system anyway.

[Athan]

WTF are you talking about?

How is posting a video any different than posting a news article?

I post videos/articles I found interesting and would like to see other people's opinions on.

I dunno wtf he is talking about either. Just stay still and hope he can't hunt prey when they aren't moving. :D

[AutoDas]

bump

[Kraig]

WTF are you talking about?

How is posting a video any different than posting a news article?

I post videos/articles I found interesting and would like to see other people's opinions on.

Thanks for posting it. :)

[TastyWheat]

Here are a few problems I had with that video:

Few specifics. What was the exact wait time, how much paperwork was involved, how many doctors did you see, how much choice were you given?
Most of the conditions were not life-threatening. They probably didn't complain about the wait time because they weren't desperate to get the surgery.
Most of the conditions did not require advanced technology or expertise. Americans pay the high prices for the latest and greatest technology and procedures. When it becomes more affordable is when the socialized countries start to adopt them.
The gentleman who used to live in America was seeing the faults of our managed system. He had his employer's insurance; he wasn't able to shop around or keep his policy when he lost his job.

[krazy kaju]

http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba649

10 SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT AMERICAN HEALTH CARE

Medical care in the United States is derided as miserable compared to health care systems in the rest of the developed world. Economists, government officials, insurers and academics alike are beating the drum for a far larger government rôle in health care. Much of the public assumes their arguments are sound because the calls for change are so ubiquitous and the topic so complex. However, before turning to government as the solution, some unheralded facts about America's health care system should be considered.

Fact No. 1: Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers.[1] Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States, and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the U.K. and 457 percent higher in Norway. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher.

Fact No. 2: Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians.[2] Breast cancer mortality is 9 percent higher, prostate cancer is 184 percent higher and colon cancer mortality among men is about 10 percent higher than in the United States.

Fact No. 3: Americans have better access to treatment for chronic diseases than patients in other developed countries.[3] Some 56 percent of Americans who could benefit are taking statins, which reduce cholesterol and protect against heart disease. By comparison, of those patients who could benefit from these drugs, only 36 percent of the Dutch, 29 percent of the Swiss, 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Britons and 17 percent of Italians receive them.

Fact No. 4: Americans have better access to preventive cancer screening than Canadians.[4] Take the proportion of the appropriate-age population groups who have received recommended tests for breast, cervical, prostate and colon cancer:

* Nine of 10 middle-aged American women (89 percent) have had a mammogram, compared to less than three-fourths of Canadians (72 percent).
* Nearly all American women (96 percent) have had a pap smear, compared to less than 90 percent of Canadians.
* More than half of American men (54 percent) have had a PSA test, compared to less than 1 in 6 Canadians (16 percent).
* Nearly one-third of Americans (30 percent) have had a colonoscopy, compared with less than 1 in 20 Canadians (5 percent).

Fact No. 5: Lower income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians. Twice as many American seniors with below-median incomes self-report "excellent" health compared to Canadian seniors (11.7 percent versus 5.8 percent). Conversely, white Canadian young adults with below-median incomes are 20 percent more likely than lower income Americans to describe their health as "fair or poor."[5]

Fact No. 6: Americans spend less time waiting for care than patients in Canada and the U.K. Canadian and British patients wait about twice as long - sometimes more than a year - to see a specialist, to have elective surgery like hip replacements or to get radiation treatment for cancer.[6] All told, 827,429 people are waiting for some type of procedure in Canada.[7] In England, nearly 1.8 million people are waiting for a hospital admission or outpatient treatment.[8]

Fact No. 7: People in countries with more government control of health care are highly dissatisfied and believe reform is needed. More than 70 percent of German, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and British adults say their health system needs either "fundamental change" or "complete rebuilding."[9]

Fact No. 8: Americans are more satisfied with the care they receive than Canadians. When asked about their own health care instead of the "health care system," more than half of Americans (51.3 percent) are very satisfied with their health care services, compared to only 41.5 percent of Canadians; a lower proportion of Americans are dissatisfied (6.8 percent) than Canadians (8.5 percent).[10]

Fact No. 9: Americans have much better access to important new technologies like medical imaging than patients in Canada or the U.K. Maligned as a waste by economists and policymakers naïve to actual medical practice, an overwhelming majority of leading American physicians identified computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as the most important medical innovations for improving patient care during the previous decade.[11] [See the table.] The United States has 34 CT scanners per million Americans, compared to 12 in Canada and eight in Britain. The United States has nearly 27 MRI machines per million compared to about 6 per million in Canada and Britain.[12]

Fact No. 10: Americans are responsible for the vast majority of all health care innovations.[13] The top five U.S. hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other single developed country.[14] Since the mid-1970s, the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology has gone to American residents more often than recipients from all other countries combined.[15] In only five of the past 34 years did a scientist living in America not win or share in the prize. Most important recent medical innovations were developed in the United States.[16] [See the table.]

Conclusion. Despite serious challenges, such as escalating costs and the uninsured, the U.S. health care system compares favorably to those in other developed countries.

Scott W. Atlas, M.D., is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor at the Stanford University Medical Center. A version of this article appeared previously in the February 18, 2009, Washington Times.

[V-rod]

Enough Gore Vidal interviews already.

[TheEvilDetector]

What about your opinion on them?

Not just you though, I see this often here and other places. People post videos or articles just the same as if I clicked some link on a newsfeed. Provide a little commentary. Maybe a summary and reaction to the video would be a good thing.

I do this from time to time. Commentary is optional I think, however if you disagree, I suppose you could apply to be a moderator and force upon us your view in this matter via kicks/bans.

[krazy kaju]

This kind of "reporting" and argumentation is typical of liberals. Instead of using reliable facts, they use personal experiences, which are often misguided. Whether you like it or not, Americans have lower mortality rates than Canadians, Britons, Germans, and others. http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba649