Written by Ralph Nader and published by Common Dreams, open for re-publication –
Dear America:
Costly complexity is baked into Obamacare. No health insurance system is without problems but Canadian style single-payer full Medicare for all is simple, affordable, comprehensive and universal.
In the early 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson enrolled 20 million elderly Americans into Medicare in six months. There were no websites. They did it with index cards!
Below please find 21 Ways the Canadian Health Care System is Better than Obamacare.
Repeal Obamacare and replace it with the much more efficient single-payer, everybody in, nobody out, free choice of doctor and hospital.
Love, Canada
Number 21:
In Canada, everyone is covered automatically at birth – everybody in, nobody out.
In the United States, under Obamacare, 31 million Americans will still be uninsured by 2023 and millions more will remain underinsured.
Number 20:
In Canada, the health system is designed to put people, not profits, first.
In the United States, Obamacare will do little to curb insurance industry profits and will actually enhance insurance industry profits.
Number 19:
In Canada, coverage is not tied to a job or dependent on your income – rich and poor are in the same system, the best guaranty of quality.
In the United States, under Obamacare, much still depends on your job or income. Lose your job or lose your income, and you might lose your existing health insurance or have to settle for lesser coverage.
Number 18:
In Canada, health care coverage stays with you for your entire life.
In the United States, under Obamacare, for tens of millions of Americans, health care coverage stays with you for as long as you can afford your share.
Number 17:
In Canada, you can freely choose your doctors and hospitals and keep them. There are no lists of “in-network” vendors and no extra hidden charges for going “out of network.”
In the United States, under Obamacare, the in-network list of places where you can get treated is shrinking – thus restricting freedom of choice – and if you want to go out of network, you pay for it.
Number 16:
In Canada, the health care system is funded by income, sales and corporate taxes that, combined, are much lower than what Americans pay in premiums.
In the United States, under Obamacare, for thousands of Americans, it’s pay or die – if you can’t pay, you die. That’s why many thousands will still die every year under Obamacare from lack of health insurance to get diagnosed and treated in time.
Number 15:
In Canada, there are no complex hospital or doctor bills. In fact, usually you don’t even see a bill.
In the United States, under Obamacare, hospital and doctor bills will still be terribly complex, making it impossible to discover the many costly overcharges.
Number 14:
In Canada, costs are controlled. Canada pays 10 percent of its GDP for its health care system, covering everyone.
In the United States, under Obamacare, costs continue to skyrocket. The U.S. currently pays 18 percent of its GDP and still doesn’t cover tens of millions of people.
Number 13:
In Canada, it is unheard of for anyone to go bankrupt due to health care costs.
In the United States, under Obamacare, health care driven bankruptcy will continue to plague Americans.
Number 12:
In Canada, simplicity leads to major savings in administrative costs and overhead.
In the United States, under Obamacare, complexity will lead to ratcheting up administrative costs and overhead.
Number 11:
In Canada, when you go to a doctor or hospital the first thing they ask you is: “What’s wrong?”
In the United States, the first thing they ask you is: “What kind of insurance do you have?”
Number 10:
In Canada, the government negotiates drug prices so they are more affordable.
In the United States, under Obamacare, Congress made it specifically illegal for the government to negotiate drug prices for volume purchases, so they remain unaffordable.
Number 9:
In Canada, the government health care funds are not profitably diverted to the top one percent.
In the United States, under Obamacare, health care funds will continue to flow to the top. In 2012, CEOs at six of the largest insurance companies in the U.S. received a total of $83.3 million in pay, plus benefits.
Number 8:
In Canada, there are no necessary co-pays or deductibles.
In the United States, under Obamacare, the deductibles and co-pays will continue to be unaffordable for many millions of Americans.
Number 7:
In Canada, the health care system contributes to social solidarity and national pride.
In the United States, Obamacare is divisive, with rich and poor in different systems and tens of millions left out or with sorely limited benefits.
Number 6:
In Canada, delays in health care are not due to the cost of insurance.
In the United States, under Obamacare, patients without health insurance or who are underinsured will continue to delay or forgo care and put their lives at risk.
Number 5:
In Canada, nobody dies due to lack of health insurance.
In the United States, under Obamacare, many thousands will continue to die every year due to lack of health insurance.
Number 4:
In Canada, an increasing majority supports their health care system, which costs half as much, per person, as in the United States. And in Canada, everyone is covered.
In the United States, a majority – many for different reasons – oppose Obamacare.
Number 3:
In Canada, the tax payments to fund the health care system are progressive – the lowest 20 percent pays 6 percent of income into the system while the highest 20 percent pays 8 percent.
In the United States, under Obamacare, the poor pay a larger share of their income for health care than the affluent.
Number 2:
In Canada, the administration of the system is simple. You get a health care card when you are born. And you swipe it when you go to a doctor or hospital. End of story.
In the United States, Obamacare’s 2,500 pages plus regulations (the Canadian Medicare Bill was 13 pages) is so complex that then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said before passage “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
Number 1:
In Canada, the majority of citizens love their health care system.
In the United States, the majority of citizens, physicians, and nurses prefer the Canadian type system – single-payer, free choice of doctor and hospital , everybody in, nobody out.
22 thoughts on “Op-ed: 21 ways the Canadian health care system is better than Obamacare”
You Single Payer cheer leaders are responsible for America’s decline.
Why you don’t want to get some ambition and create wealth for yourself is puzzling. Surly you understand we are going to run out of other people’s money soon!
You can not keep tearing your fellow man down with your Single Payer BS.
Single Payer is a loser’s paradise.
Sorry
For 50 years poor people have been voting for Democrats thinking they would get ahead.
The poor folks are still poor. Don’t that tell you something?
Hey Ghoasty,
75 YEARS AGO America wasn’t the rowdy, immature, exploitative group who has forsaken community harmony for special interest and privilege by the few…all under the delusional prospect of somehow “making it”. “Making it”, just means you’ll step on the heads of others and have what they don’t.
When the voters put the liberal idiots in Congress and White House it has been all down hill. Big Government and Welfare have turned this country into a broke Welfare state that has lost hope.
Until and if we return to allowing opportunity and growth in the free-enterprise and private sector we will continue this downward negative trek.
@Ghost -Sorry. They wouldn’t let in in because a DUI is a felony up there and they do a complete background check. Also, they don’t allow anyone permanent residence that has a pre-existing illness of any sort. Because of their health care system they will not allow anyone in that will run up insurance cost.
@Ghost – I meant no disrespect with my comment. That is just the way it is in Canada. Now, if you want to go to Mexico they don’t much care.
When someone sits in front of the camera and lies through his teeth about his signature plan and then won’t even go on it himself it stinks worse than Nancy Pigoinkey at a greased hog catching contest.
I will gladly accept oblundercare if they put EVERYONE ! in this program – that means NO exceptions for the rich – which includes ALL CITY STATE AND FEDERAL EMPLOYES – that includes ALL POLITICANS AND UNION EMPLOYEES no one SHOULD exempt. Ever heard of discrimination brought about by lies and false promises.
So you want single payer? I’m a member of a trade union, and I’m in favor of that! I think just about every democrat including Pres. Obama would be in favor of that. Good luck getting the retardlicans to go along with it!
I agree with you John. Single payer is the way to go for everyone.
@DR Dumbsel-From one communist to another.
Good enough for the military.
When you get right down to it, the US Government isn’t capable of doing anything good.
Only a lunatic would want to turn their health care over to a bunch of incompetent idiots!
@Watchdog-I sure agree with that.
Move to Canada Nader if you think it so great, oh wait, I forgot, you get paid for dreaming up problems in the United States. Move to Canada Nader, I know you never will because there is to much money here for you to make with your scams.
We will stay here and fight this administration until we get a good solution. Single payer,(government,) is not the solution.
If everyone thought that way we would living in a bunch of British colonies.
a kick in the balls is better than obamacare.
@Fred-anything is better than the abomination called Obamacare.
As of 2009, over 90% of Canadians preferred their healthcare system to that of the US.
Less than.5% traveled to the US for healthcare.
And on the flip side, many US citizens purchase prescription drugs from Canada, either over the Internet or by traveling there to buy them in person, because prescription drug prices in Canada are substantially lower than prescription drug prices in the United States.
While Canadian Healthcare has its problems, it has improved a good deal over the past ten years of so.
@BNC-that is not what my friends in Canada tell me and I am a Canadian Immigrant as well. They are very good at the minor things and even heart attacks, but the major illnesses like cancer and such they are very poor at, unless you have a lot of money and can afford the specialty clinics or to come to the U.S. Now, all that being said, their prescription drugs are much cheaper and better than ours. They have European drugs available to them that we can’t even get.
@BCN: Here is where you have most awfully wrong.
Your 90% is a phoney number.
The 90% you say love their Canadian Health Plan are those that are very poor and uneducated that do not know what good health care is. In other words, they do not know any better.
Canada actually has two types of health plans. One is the single payer that is funded by an 8% sales tax that is underfunded and under staffed with Doctors that provide very poor health services.
Those Canadians with money go to a totally different health system then those using the single payer dysfunctional health care plan in Canada.
When Canada started Socialized Medicine all the good Doctors joined together and built their own clinics and hospitals and do not participate in the Canadian single payer system. Those that can afford it get the kind of Cadillac heath care we have in America. I forsee this happening in America if we don’t get this train wreck stopped!
The Canadias that come to America for life threatening health issues are the Canadians that spend their life savings and sell off their assets to literally save their lives. Canada’s single payer system leaves these Canadias in financial ruin. I can introduce you to dozens of them.
Again, your 90% is a group of a small percentage of poor and uneducated Canadians. It is not reflected or part of the 100% of Canadians.
I have been fishing in Canada for over 30 years and have many many Canadian friends. Most hate their health care system and those that don’t only tolerate it and wish they had America’s health care system.
Sorry
he can say what he wants. I spent a couple of years in Canada and I can tell you most Canadians hate their health care system. They will tell you that you will die waiting in line to see a specialist. It is good for broken bones or the flu but worthless when you get really sick. The doctors have no incentive to do anymore as they are pegged into wages. It is the main reason so many Canadians come here for serious health care.
My aunt married a Canadian, lived in Toronto. When my uncle-in-law turned 50 he was diagnosed with caner, I don’t remember which type; but it was one the Medicine can usually cure. He successfully navigated the Canadian Medical system and began treatment. On his 3 treatment he was delayed 10 min. by a train. No treatment had to wait 30 days to get back in line for treatments. To insure that did happen again he sold his home and moved into a trailer. He died within a year; now maybe he would have died anyway, but my aunt no longer has a husband, no longer has the home she has lived in for 20 years.