Toyota is building a new plant in Canada, partly because its national health care system saves money

“Canada’s other big selling point is its national health insurance system, which saves auto manufacturers large sums in benefit payments compared with their costs in the United States.” (via CuriousJD)

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Anonymous
They key phrase is “saves auto manufacturers large sums”. Toyota didn’t decide on Canada because their workers would get better health care — they decided to go where Toyota’s costs would be lower.
As to the quality of Canada’s health care:
http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/en/rec/html/2005scc035.wpd.html
“The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050708/HEALTH08/TPHealth/
“A majority [63%] of Canadians are willing to pay out of their own pockets for medical procedures to avoid long waiting lines, according to a new public opinion poll.”
Elliott
They may not get better health care, but they get better outcomes at a fraction of the cost.
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/ca/Health
Life expectancy is higher (including “healthy years”)
Infant mortality is lower
I don’t have the cite right now,(Mathhew Holt’s blog is a good source for this information), but Canadians are more satisfied with their healthcare than people in the US and Canadian doctors are more satisfied than US doctors. What’s not to like?
Ok, that’s a little bit of yperbole. Their healthcare system is not problem free, but it IS better than ours both for employers and citizens.
Anonymous
I have worked in both systems as a physician. The key difference (to me) is that in Canada, the patient is the center of the universe (even though resources are not as available). Everything you do is for the patient.
In the US, everyone does what’s in their own best interest (Doctors, nurses, resp. techs, insurers, Lawyers, it goes on and on) So many people have their “hands in the cash register” it’s hard to keep things straight.
Anonymous
Yeah, the Canadians who answer those surveys about being so happy with their healthcare are the ones who aren’t in the U.S. getting their heart bypasses done, or who are healthy enough they don’t need a lot of medical care. Funny how much healthier a population looks when it doesn’t have a lot of sickly people mucking up the statistics.
Oh, yeah, and did you hear the one (front page, Wall Street Journal about a dozen years ago) about how there were so few anesthesiologists in Canada that on nights and weekends, you just might not want to go into labor and need an epidural, because you maybe ain’t gettin’ one.
Anonymous
did you hear the one (front page, Wall Street Journal about a dozen years ago) about how there were so few anesthesiologists in Canada that on nights and weekends, you just might not want to go into labor and need an epidural, because you maybe ain’t gettin’ one.
Sounds like you’re talking about high risk specialties (hand surgery, Ob-gyn) in the US. At least you won’t automatically get your uterus sliced open in Canada.
Anonymous
Nope, the WSJ article was talking about Canada’s anesthesiologists generally, not anesthesiologists specializing in hand surgery (!?) or OB. The OB reference stuck in my head, having a friend who recently gave birth Up North.
Anonymous
What I meant is that there are shortages of docs in those specialties in the US cause of the malpractice crisis. Docs don’t want to take call rfor the ER cause the patients are higher risk.

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