A theme among left-of-centre polemicists, when writing on health care, seems to assume that the poor get better health care when they live in nations with government-run systems, says Amy Ridenour, president of the National Center for Public Policy Research.
But do the poor in other countries really receive good medical care? It doesn’t seem that way. Consider remarks from the free-market Fraser Institute’s annual report on waiting lists in Canada:
The causes of these socioeconomic disparities in access and outcome remain obscure, says Ridenour, but their persistence poses a clear challenge to the egalitarian principles of Canada’s publicly funded health care system.
In conclusion, the health care inequities that occur in the United States also occur in other countries. The experience of Canada suggests that the problem also replicates itself in universal health care systems. Thus, any government system in a democracy is going to result in more resources going to affluent areas and less to poor ones including health care systems.
Source: Amy Ridenour, Is Health Care for the Poor Better Abroad? National Center for Public Policy Research, February 1, 2007; and Nadeem Esmail, Michael A. Walker and Dominika Wrona, Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada; Waiting Your Turn 16th Edition, Fraser Institute, October 2006.
For text: http://www.nationalcenter.org/health-care-quality-poor_9020107.html
For Fraser Study: http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/admin/books/chapterfiles/wyt2006.pdf#
For more on Health Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=16
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 13 February 2007
