question: how come we in the United States can't afford to pay for healthcare like Canada does? I understand Canada has a lot less people but Canada also brings in a lot less money. PS this is not a political statement at all I live in the US and I really don't care one way or another I have insurance
comment: The US could pay for universal health care several times over. Affording it is not the problem.
passages: In a letter to the "Wall Street Journal", Robert Bell, the President and CEO of University Health Network, Toronto, said that Michael Moore's film "Sicko" "exaggerated the performance of the Canadian health system — there is no doubt that too many patients still stay in our emergency departments waiting for admission to scarce hospital beds." However, "Canadians spend about 55% of what Americans spend on health care and have longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality rates. Many Americans have access to quality healthcare. All Canadians have access to similar care at a considerably lower cost." There is "no question" that the lower cost has come at the cost of "restriction of supply with sub-optimal access to services," said Bell. A new approach is targeting waiting times, which are reported on public websites.
   Section::::Criticisms.:Cross-border health care.:Americans visiting Canada to receive healthcare.
  
  Some US citizens travel to Canada for health care related reasons. These reasons frequently involve seeking lower costs.
  
  Many US citizens purchase prescription drugs from Canada, either over the Internet or by traveling there to buy them in person, because prescription drug prices in Canada are substantially lower than prescription drug prices in the United States; this cross-border purchasing has been estimated at $1 billion annually. Some states like Florida have signed bills to import prescription drugs from Canada but are awaiting federal approval.
   After her ad appeared critics pointed out discrepancies in her story, including that Rathke's cleft cyst, the condition she was treated for, was not a form of cancer, and was not life-threatening.
  
  Section::::Price of health care and administration overheads.
  
  Healthcare is one of the most expensive items of both nations' budgets. In the United States, the various levels of government spend more per capita than levels of government do in Canada. In 2004, Canada government-spending was $2,120 (in US dollars) per person, while the United States government-spending $2,724.
   Some who advocate against greater government involvement in healthcare have asserted that the difference in costs between the two nations is partially explained by the differences in their demographics. Illegal immigrants, more prevalent in the U.S. than in Canada, also add a burden to the system, as many of them do not carry health insurance and rely on emergency rooms — which are legally required to treat them under EMTALA — as a principal source of care. In Colorado, for example, an estimated 80% of undocumented immigrants do not have health insurance.
   In July 2009, Connecticut passed into law a plan called SustiNet, with the goal of achieving health care coverage of 98% of its residents by 2014.
  
  US President Donald Trump has declared his intent to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but has failed to do so, thus far.
  
  Section::::Politics of health.:Private care.
   BULLET::::- Limited coverage for podiatry
  
  Coverage varies for care related to the feet. In Ontario, as of 2019, Medicare covers between $7–16 of each visit to a registered podiatrist up to $135 per patient per year, plus $30 for x-rays. Although the elderly, as well as diabetic patients, may have needs that greatly exceed that limit, such costs would have to be covered by patients or private supplemental insurance.
  
  BULLET::::- Limited coverage for sex reassignment surgery
   Section::::Impact on economy.
  
  In 2002, automotive companies claimed that the universal system in Canada saved labour costs. In 2004, healthcare cost General Motors $5.8 billion, and increased to $7 billion. The UAW also claimed that the resulting escalating healthcare premiums reduced workers' bargaining powers.
  
  Section::::Flexibility.
  
  In Canada, increasing demands for healthcare, due to the aging population, must be met by either increasing taxes or reducing other government programs. In the United States, under the current system, more of the burden will be taken up by the private sector and individuals.
   Section::::Criticisms.:Cross-border health care.:Canadians visiting the US to receive healthcare.
  
  Some residents of Canada travel to the United States for care. A study by Barer, et al., indicates that the majority of Canadians who seek healthcare in the U.S. are already there for other reasons, including business travel or vacations. A smaller proportion seek care in the U.S. for reasons of confidentiality, including abortions, mental illness, substance abuse, and other problems that they may not wish to divulge to their local physician, family, or employer.
   The U.S. system is often compared with that of its northern neighbor, Canada (see Canadian and American health care systems compared). Canada's system is largely publicly funded. In 2006, Americans spent an estimated US$6,714 per capita on health care, while Canadians spent US$3,678. This amounted to 15% percent of U.S. GDP in that year, while Canada spent 10%. A study by Harvard Medical School and the Canadian Institute for Health Information determined that some 31% of U.S. health care dollars (more than $1,000 per person per year) went to health care administrative costs.
   In both Canada and the United States, access can be a problem. Studies suggest that 40% of U.S. citizens do not have adequate health insurance, if any at all. In Canada, 5% of Canadian citizens have not been able to find a regular doctor, with a further 9% having never looked for one. Yet, even if some cannot find a family doctor, every Canadian citizen is covered by the national health care system. The U.S. data is evidenced in a 2007 Consumer Reports study on the U.S. health care system which showed that the underinsured account for 24% of the U.S. population and live with skeletal health insurance that barely covers their medical needs and leaves them unprepared to pay for major medical expenses. When added to the population of uninsured (approximately 16% of the U.S. population), a total of 40% of Americans ages 18–64 have inadequate access to healthcare, according to the Consumer Reports study. The Canadian data comes from the 2003 Canadian Community Health Survey,
   In Canada, health care is mostly paid through employee income taxes, while in the United States most companies choose to extend health benefits to full-time employees. The most common complaint regarding the Canadian system are the long lines and waiting periods that have appeared for minor and non-life-threatening procedures over the last 15 years, since the introduction of widespread cuts to public funding. Separately, a number of medical tests and screenings are not covered (or due to increasing costs, are no longer covered) by the Canadian health system, forcing patients to pay for these services out of their own pockets. For these reasons, some relatively wealthy Canadians undergo treatment at private healthcare facilities at their own expense, either in Canada, in India, or in other nations to avoid waiting for medical treatment, joining "medical tourists" from many nations, including the US. Despite these sporadic problems, Canada's healthcare performance has been of higher quality on most factors. Efforts were made to reduce wait times by many provincial governments in the 1990s and 2000s, in an effort to improve care.
   BULLET::::- Limited coverage for physiotherapy, occupational therapy and massage therapy
   A 2003 Gallup poll found 25% of Americans are either "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with "the availability of affordable healthcare in the nation", versus 50% of those in the UK and 57% of Canadians. Those "very dissatisfied" made up 44% of Americans, 25% of respondents of Britons, and 17% of Canadians. Regarding quality, 48% of Americans, 52% of Canadians, and 42% of Britons say they are satisfied.
  
  Section::::Economics.
   Opponents of Canadian health care often raise issues such as long wait times, a 'brain-drain' drawing qualified professionals away from Canada to other jurisdictions where working in the health care field is more profitable, and impairment of the Canadian health care system due to budget cuts. Fox News ran a story in 2007 reporting that during a period of above average numbers of births, at least 40 Canadian mothers of premature babies had to travel to the U.S. for treatment due to insufficient capacity for premature babies in British Columbia neonatal units. Nonetheless, Canada's health care system covered the health care costs of those mothers affected.
   Cato Institute has expressed concerns that the U.S. government has restricted the freedom of Medicare patients to spend their own money on healthcare, and has contrasted these developments with the situation in Canada, where in 2005 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the province of Quebec could not prohibit its citizens from purchasing covered services through private health insurance. The institute has urged the Congress to restore the right of American seniors to spend their own money on medical care.
  
  Section::::Coverage for Mental Health.
   One study estimates that about 25 percent of the uninsured in the U.S. are eligible for these programs but remain unenrolled; however, extending coverage to all who are eligible remains a fiscal and political challenge.
   Other critics of healthcare state that increased funding will not solve systemic problems in the healthcare system including a rising cost of medical technology, infrastructure, and wages. These critics say that Canada's proximity to the United States causes a "brain drain" or migration of Canadian-trained doctors and nurses (as well as other professionals) to the United States, where private hospitals can pay much higher wages and income tax rates are lower (partially because health care is not covered through taxation). Some of these critics argue that increased privatization of healthcare would improve Canada's health infrastructure. Others argue vehemently against it. For example, large resources are required to train and educate doctors. Since the number of available doctors is therefore limited, doctors working for a private system would not be working under the public system creating little to no net increase in available services.
   Section::::Criticisms.:Restrictions on privately funded healthcare.
   Healthcare coverage is universal for Canadians, and transferable outside a home province within Canada. In the United States, however, the most common complaint is that approximately 50 million people are uninsured, and thus do not have access to even the most basic healthcare services which Canadians have access to. This puts a burden on the emergency room services in the States and causes increases in healthcare costs significantly.Canadians, however, receive better care to those Americans who receive treatment, and result measures.
   Section::::Criticisms.:Limited coverage.:Nursing homes and home care.
   Through all entities in its public–private system, the US spends more per capita than any other nation in the world, but is the only wealthy industrialized country in the world that lacks some form of universal healthcare. In March 2010, the US Congress passed regulatory reform of the American "health insurance" system. However, since this legislation is not fundamental "healthcare" reform, it is unclear what its effect will be and as the new legislation is implemented in stages, with the last provision in effect in 2018, it will be some years before any empirical evaluation of the full effects on the comparison could be determined.
   There are a number of ancillary costs that are higher in the U.S. Administrative costs are significantly higher in the U.S.; government mandates on record keeping and the diversity of insurers, plans and administrative layers involved in every transaction result in greater administrative effort. One recent study comparing administrative costs in the two countries found that these costs in the U.S. are roughly double what they are in Canada. Another ancillary cost is marketing, both by insurance companies and health care providers. These costs are higher in the U.S., contributing to higher overall costs in that nation.
  
  Section::::Healthcare outcomes.
   A 2017 cost-effectiveness analysis by the Fraser Institute showed that "although Canada ranks among the most expensive universal-access health-care systems in the OECD, its performance for availability and access to resources is generally below that of the average OECD country, while its performance for use of resources and quality and clinical performance is mixed."
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Canada Health Act
  
  BULLET::::- Canada Health Transfer
  
  BULLET::::- Canada Health and Social Transfer
  
  BULLET::::- Canada's Health Care providers, 2007
  
  BULLET::::- Canadian and American health care systems compared
  
  BULLET::::- Health in Canada
   In defending the changes, the government explained its rationale as being to ensure equality between the health care received by refugees and that afforded to Canadians such that refugees would not receive superior benefits. Former Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney emphasized the generosity of Canadians and Canada's immigration system, stating that the government did “not want to ask Canadians to pay for benefits for protected persons and refugee claimants that are more generous than what they are entitled to themselves.” In a related case, Nell Toussaint v. Attorney General of Canada, the Supreme Court cautioned that by extending universal health care regardless of immigration status, Canada “could become a health-care safe haven”.
   There has been significant controversy around changes to the social assistance program for refugee claimants (Interim Federal Health). Physicians and allied health professionals have opposed these cuts through national protests in all major cities in Canada. Physicians opposing the cuts to refugee health care include Vincent Lam who stated that Canada is a country known for its tolerance and diversity, but we [healthcare professionals] are "dismayed and ashamed at the cuts for healthcare for refugees" 
  
presuppositions: US can't afford to pay for healthcare. The United States can't afford to pay for healthcare.
corrections: US could easily pay for healthcare, they just don't want to. The United States can afford to pay for healthcare but chooses not to.
raw_presuppositions: US can't afford to pay for healthcare. The United States can't afford to pay for healthcare.
raw_corrections: US could easily pay for healthcare, they just don't want to. The United States can afford to pay for healthcare but chooses not to.