Canadian Health Care

If the Canadian model of health care is so poor, why do they live longer than us (81.2 vs. 78.1, according to the WHO)?

First let me say that living longer doesn't necessarily living a GOOD long life, but the chart above shows that Canadians also have more healthy years than US residents.

Perhaps the disparity is because although many US residents may get slightly better treatment for their ailments than they would in Canada, ALL Canadians get the treatment they NEED. Maybe - maybe not.

The answer probably is more true that Canadians live healthier lives, NOT that their healthcare is any better (or worse). See the graph below, which shows the percent of citizens who are obese.


According to Carrie Dalhberg of the Sacramento Bee, we might get better longevity results if, instead of putting attention on extending medical care to everyone, we put our attention on more systemic problems:

When taken all together, the other factors that play a bigger role [if health] include education, income, toxins in the environment, crime, violence, family structure, stress, obesity, nutritious food and exercise.

It's no surprise that the people who don't have health care in the US also are more likely to suffer from the systemic challenges Dahlberg refers to.

Income disparity in the US is a prime reason for the lack of access to health care, but again that is not the real issue (but please don't hear me saying that I don't desire reform). A typical US view is that buying the "thing" will solve the problem. If we could just get more people to get access to this special "thing" that is so valuable (because it costs money), then we can solve our problem.

But it's not so much a thing we can acquire so much as it is a list of behaviors we should engage in:

• Exercise
• Eat healthier foods
• Quit smoking
• Minimize stress
  

To a large extent these are choices we must make. For example, I have eaten the large part of three King Cakes this Mardi Gras season. My bad. They taste good and they are oh so accessible thanks to modern food processing. I am programmed to eat more of that stuff than I should and it's just a battle we must all fight. Personal responsibility is a huge piece of this.


To another extent, the above problems are created/exacerbated by the income inequality in the US. The cheapest food is the "fakest" food - chock full of artificial ingredients and chemicals. The cheapest food is highly processed and highly calorie dense and makes people fatter faster than unprocessed food. We know that more educated people smoke less. That's not to say that education necessarily stops smoking, but I believe the socioeconomic link is very strong.

To sum up: Put down the doughnut, be less stingy with your tax dollars, and vote to ensure those tax dollars are spent on smart, robust, and equitable educational programs (in my view, the key to socioeconomic equality).

Obesity Data - http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity