Fact Sheet:

A study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that the United States spends 345% more per capita on health administration than Canada.

According to the OECD, Canadians live two to three years longer than Americans and are as likely to survive heart attacks, childhood leukemia, and breast and cervical cancer,

Data indicate that Canada’s system of universal health coverage provides care as good as in the U.S., at a cost 47 percent less for each person.

The Canadian mortality rate from asthma is one quarter of the U.S.’s, and the infant mortality rate is 34 percent lower.

People in Canada are also 21 percent more apt to survive five years after a liver transplant.

The U.S. spent $7,290 on health care for each person in 2007, 87 percent more than Canada’s $3,895.

Canadians visited their doctors more frequently: 5.9 visits per person compared with four for those in the U.S.

More than 31% of every dollar spent on health care in the U.S. goes to paperwork, overhead, CEO salaries, and profits, etc. compared to 1% overhead in Canada.

Canada spends 10% of GDP to cover 100% percent of the population, where are the the U.S. spends 17 percent of its GDP but 15 percent of its population has no coverage whatsoever.

There are no waits for urgent or primary care in Canada.

According to the U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group and the Canadian Cancer Society Canada boasts lower incident and mortality rates than the U.S. for all cancers combined.

Despite spending significantly more money, US health outcomes are lower in the US than in Canada.

A recent University of California, San Francisco, study estimates that the United States would save over $161 billion every year in paperwork alone if it switched to a singlepayer system like Canada's.

Research on 38 million adult patients in 26,000 U.S. hospitals revealed that death rates in for-profit hospitals are significantly higher than in nonprofit hospitals:

Unlike in the US, in Canada there is no relation between income inequality and mortality.

If the U.S. infant mortality rate were the same as Canada's, almost 15,000 more babies would survive in the United States every year.

Canadians spend about 55% of what Americans spend on health care and have longer life expectancy, and lower infant mortality rates.

In 1999, health administration costs totaled at least $294.3 billion in the United States, or $1,059 per capita, as compared with $307 per capita in Canada.

A 2007 Consumer Reports study on the U.S. health care system found that when added to the population of uninsured (approximately 16% of the U.S. population), a total of 40% of Americans ages 18–64 have inadequate access to health care

An OECD study found that in the U.S., $728 per capita is spent each year on drugs, while in Canada it is $509

Cancer survival is more strongly correlated with socio-economic class in the U.S. than in Ontario.

If a Canadian were to travel to the US for a knee or hip replacement surgery it would cost upwards of $70,000. The actual costs incurred by the hospital for a hip replacement is 12,000 in the US compared to 6000 in Canada.

Canada has lower rates of unadjusted in-hospital mortality (1.4% Canada vs. 2.2% U.S.).

If you are over 65, the US has higher surgery mortality rates.

Rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a leading killer, are higher in Canada than in the US, were there are 5.2 cases per 1,000 hospital admissions compared with 3.95.

The mortality rate for end-stage renal disease was 47% higher in the U.S. than in Canada.

Canadian patients are twice as likely to receive kidney transplants as are Americans.

Compared with their American counterparts, low-income Canadians were found to have a significant survival advantage for 13 of the 15 kinds of cancer studied.

An OECD study found that more Canadians were satisfied with their health system than Americans, and another showed that 44% of U.S. citizens were “not very” or “not at all” satisfied with their health care system compared to 36% of Canadian citizens.

In a comparative survey of hospital executives, 50% of US hospital administrators reported they were unsatisfied with the health care system versus 12% of their Canadian counterparts.

Basic Statistics health outcome statics:

Lists:

8 Myths about Canadian Health Care

1. Taxes in Canada are extremely high, mostly because of national health care.

2. Myth: Canada's health care system is a cumbersome bureaucracy.

3. The Canadian system is significantly more expensive than that of the U.S.

4. Canada's government decides who gets health care and when they get it.

5. There are long waits for care, which compromise access to care.

6. Canadians are paying out of pocket to come to the U.S. for medical care

7. Canada is a socialized health care system in which the government runs hospitals and where doctors work for the government.

8. There aren't enough doctors in Canada.
    

10 Myths About Canadian Health Care, Busted

1. Canada's health care system is "socialized medicine."

2. Doctors are hurt financially by single-payer health care.

3. Wait times in Canada are horrendous.

4. You have to wait forever to get a family doctor.

5. You don't get to choose your own doctor.

6. Canada's care plan only covers the basics. You're still on your own for any extras, including prescription drugs. And you still have to pay for it.

7. Canadian drugs are not the same.

8. Publicly-funded programs will inevitably lead to rationed health care, particularly for the elderly.

9. People won't be responsible for their own health if they're not being forced to pay for the consequences.

10. This all sounds great -- but the taxes to cover it are just unaffordable. And besides, isn't the system in bad financial shape?
     

Six reasons why I’d rather get sick in Canada:

1. Converge is Universal.

2. I visited doctors twice in the last week and never had to haul out my credit card or chequebook before I could see them.

3. The quality of care I got in the last week was unparalleled.

4. Many of our medical outcomes top those in the U.S. We live longer, our infant mortality rates are lower, our cancer and heart disease levels and the rate of low-birth weight babies, are better.

5. I only had to wait several weeks to see a specialist.

6. I feel better knowing that part of my health dollars aren't going to line the pockets of fat-cat private health insurers, whose profits in the U.S. have equaled the total amount of money that Canada spends annually on health care for all its citizens.

Videos:

Kiefer Sutherland on the Need for Progressive Health Care Reform in America

Universal Health Care Message to Americans From Canadian Doctors & Health Care Experts

Interview with Canadian PM Stephen Harper on US Healthcare Reform

Comparing Canadian and American Health Care

Union Presentation: US vs. Canada Healthcare

The Truth About Canadian Health Care, The Agenda