What is Right about the Canadian Health Care System?

Abstract

anadians are remarkably masochistic.year after year, the United Nations reports that Canada is the most livable country in the world; yet we seem to discuss nothing but how to dismember the elements that make it so.Canada has one of the world's most successful health care systems.Yet we cannot shake the belief that, despite all evidence, the grass is greener south of the border.Although our system is fundamentally sound, we dwell on its problems and insist on looking for magical fixes from the Americans, whose health care system is generally recognized as being among the least satisfactory in the developed world.The truth is, there is no shortage of good news about the Canadian health care system; why we hear this so rarely is a matter that should concern us.For example, Canadians are healthy.On average, we are among the healthiest people in the world, and we are becoming healthier.Wide variations exist by region and social group, and we rightly hear much about these.However, Canadians' general health is high and rising.In particular, on the standard measures of life expectancy and infant mortality, we outperform the United States, which records eight infant deaths per thousand live births, placing it in the same league as the Czech