The Canadian Health Care System

Abstract

Canada is perceived to have one of the best health care systems in the developed world, publicly funded and providing universal coverage. It has avoided the direct governmental controls of Britain's National Health Service and the increasingly close monitoring of medical decisions by third-party payers in the United States. With U.S. health care costs exceeding 11 percent of the gross national product and continuing to rise,¹ it is no surprise that Americans are increasingly interested in the apparent structural efficiency of Canadian health care.² This interest is driven by concern over 37 million citizens without health insurance and by the . . .