I heard a relatively new U.S. citizen reflect on the differences between the U.S. and Canadian health care systems yesterday. The newbie is Dr. Alan Goldbloom, now president/CEO of Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. He was a lifelong Canadian until 2 years ago.
He led with a common joke: "A Canadian is an unarmed American with health care."
But as an administrator he talked about the 105 people he now must employ in finance and related work, supporting the transactional costs of the U.S. system but not contributing directly to patient care. He estimated that transactional costs now make up one third of all U.S. health care costs.
And he emphasized the impact of federal and state Medicaid cuts or shifts on children's hospitals. He said kids now make up 50% of Medicaid enrollees and that nationwide Medicaid makes up 50% of the revenue of children's hospitals.
One key difference between the two countries, in Goldbloom's opinion: "In Canada, the right to health care is right up there with freedom of speech and freedom of the press."
His talk was not covered by any news media. Too bad.
Posted by schwitz at July 22, 2005 08:31 AM | TrackBack