Public vs. Private Health Care

According to the Toronto Star, a report released yesterday indicates that 4.1 million Canadians aged 12 and older have no family doctor. This is astonishing! How could it be that a national health care system could deny so many people?

Simple arithmetic reveals that the 4.1 million figure equals approximately 15% of all Canadians (12 and older). With 28 million people 12 and older, extrapolated from CIA World Factbook, 4.1 divided by 28 equals 14.6%.

Canadian poor and underprivileged are affected the most, just as in the U.S.

Since it has been claimed that the U.S. also denies adequate health care to 15% of the population (45 million without health care divided by 300 million total population), it appears that a similar circumstance exists in Canada with nationalized health care as exists in the U.S. without nationalized health care.

And, compare this. In the U.S., the fact that 15% of the population do not have sufficient health care is used as justification by politicians to clamor for the need to institute a national health care system. In Canada, the same 15% figure is also used by politicians as a reason to institute more private realm incentives into the national health care system.

From just looking at raw numbers, I would suggest that, with or without a nationalized health care system, a nation will have the similar problems providing health care to the underserved and a comparable 15% of the population will be denied in some manner.

Therefore, it seems that it's a push between public and private health care when it comes to the end result of providing for the neediest.

Also: Jawa Report