American health care cannot be compared to other countries because of our cultural diversity.

That’s an original take on the situation. In an op-ed, Dave Racer continues the argument, saying “racial, cultural, hereditary and disease histories have a great impact on U.S. societal outcomes; this is far different from most foreign countries.

It is simply impossible, and quite disingenuous, to compare U.S. life expectancy, infant mortality and a host of other statistics to those of countries with homogenous populations. We are not them.”

I agree to a point. On one hand, there is tremendous waste within our system, and using ideas that other countries have used successfully could help.

However, importing say, the single-payer system of Canada isn’t going to work. Why? The simple reason is that we’re not Canadian.

This also applies to those who like to compare metrics like physician salaries between countries. It is wholly irrelevant what doctors in other countries make, because they do not deal with the costs and issues unique to practicing medicine in the United States.