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To: RealMuLan who wrote (57576)	12/24/2004 11:54:55 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

One Canadian's view on government health care. Start reading at the second paragraph... Message 20885850

To: RealMuLan who wrote (57576)	12/25/2004 7:14:38 AM
From: Seeker of Truth	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 74559

Hi Yiwu, There will be eternal arguments about which is better, government or private medical care. I'm prepared to believe every horror story anecdote that I hear emanating from either kind of system. That's because we are dealing with millions of patients and tens of thousands of doctors. I could deluge you with anecdotes of Chinese immigrant friends here in Toronto who say the health system here is great but their anecdotes don't prove anything. I am prejudiced in favour of private business because I wouldn't buy a government manufactured bicycle. However we don't have the comparative statistics, so until we have them I can't decide whether the US private system is better or worse than the Canadian public system. If course I'm totally unqualified to compare health care in Canada with that of China. Interestingly US per capita expenditure on health is about 16% higher than that of Canada. But Canadians have a longer life span.?? I'm not drawing any conclusions. Maybe the climate is healthier here, hard to say. In any case we should seriously consider a seldom mentioned factor. THE KIND OF HEALTH CARE YOU GET DEPENDS ON ONE's OWN KNOWHOW. What! We're not doctors, how can we get "knowhow"? I don't mean the know how of how to perform surgery etc. I mean the mostly private experience of knowledgeable people, many of them doctors inside the particular system, conveyed to us via social contacts as to Who are the best GPs? Who are the best specialists in this and that? Which are the best hospitals? In either government or private systems there is this know how to be collected over a life time. People exchange this know how with their friends. Recent immigrants are clearly at a disadvantage here. In short, any health system has Gaussian outcomes with doctor's technical knowhow and patients knowhow about reputations and nature's luck combining to give a well spread out distribution.