Update on Health Care in Canada: What's Right, What's Wrong, What's Left

Americans wanting to understand health care in Canada must take into account three issues: first, what's right about the system, and always has been—it is an accessible system providing universal access to comprehensive medical care. What isn't wrong with the system, that is, the lies promulgated in the United States press about long waiting lines for care and Canadians pouring across the border for care unavailable in Canada, is included. The second issue is what's wrong, and has always been wrong, with the Canadian system: it's a private-practice, fee-for-service medical (some would say “sickness”) care system in which the social determinants of health and primary prevention have never been appropriately funded. Finally, for several years there have been, and continue to be, real and ever-escalating threats to the Canadian system in the form of block-granting and serious cuts.