Health status, health care and inequality
Subtitle: Canada vs. the U.S.
By: June E. O'Neill, Dave M. O'Neill.
Contributors: O'Neill, David M.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- no. 13429.; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research) -- working paper no. 13429.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 42
Subjects: Medical care -- United States -- Mathematical models; Medical care -- Canada -- Mathematical models; Health status indicators -- United States -- Evaluation; Health status indicators -- Canada -- Evaluation; Health surveys -- United States; Health surveys -- Canada
Description: Does Canada's publicly funded, single payer health care system deliver better health outcomes and distribute health resources more equitably than the multi-payer heavily private U.S. system? We show that the efficacy of health care systems cannot be usefully evaluated by comparisons of infant mortality and life expectancy. We analyze several alternative measures of health status using JCUSH (The Joint Canada/U.S. Survey of Health) and other surveys. We find a somewhat higher incidence of chronic health conditions in the U.S. than in Canada but somewhat greater U.S. access to treatment for these conditions. Moreover, a significantly higher percentage of U.S. women and men are screened for major forms of cancer. Although health status, measured in various ways is similar in both countries, mortality/incidence ratios for various cancers tend to be higher in Canada. The need to ration resources in Canada, where care is delivered "free", ultimately leads to long waits. In the U.S., costs are more often a source of unmet needs. We also find that Canada has no more abolished the tendency for health status to improve with income than have other countries. Indeed, the health-income gradient is slightly steeper in Canada than it is in the U.S.
Notes: "September 2007"

Includes bibliographical references (p. 18-20).

Also available in PDF from the NBER world wide web site (www.nber.org).