Canucks Healthier than Yanks, Too

Last month, a study was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and remarked upon herein, that stated rather categorically that the British are healthier than Americans. Well, folks, the news just got worse. Turns out the denizens of the Great White North are in finer fettle, too.

The Canada-US study came out Tuesday, published in the American Journal of Public Health. A phone interview of 3,500 Canadians and 5,200 Americans over 18 years of age, it appears to be statistically valid and properly conducted. In other words, the facts are, indeed, facts – unless a statistically significant portion of the subjects lied to the surveyors, and lied in the same way. That is unlikely to say the least, but the study on the UK in May also conducted lab tests on subjects, and so is even more plausibly correct.

The US outscored Canada on diabetes, with 6.7% of Yanks suffer from it while 4.7% of Canadians have it. The US also had more people with high blood pressure (18.3% to 13.9%), more arthritis (17.9% to 16.0%), more obesity (around 21% to 15%), and more Americans confessed to a sedentary lifestyle (13.5% to 6.5%). Some 80% of American have a regular doctor while roughly 85% of Canadians do.

The Americans did score better in a few ways. Respondents rating their health care as excellent were more frequently American (42% to 39%). Long waits prevented less than 1% of American from getting the healthcare they need compared to 3.5% of Canadians (could Canadian merely be impatient?). More Canadians smoke (19% to 17%) -- reconciling that with less high blood pressure is tough. What is especially unnerving to American patriots is this ugly fact -- almost twice as many Americans can’t afford the medicine they need compared to Canadians -- 9.9% against 5.1%.

What is the difference? Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a co-author of the Canadian study, noted that insured Americans and insured Canadians were about equal in their answers. The 42 million uninsured Americans make the difference. It seems every developed country in the world can insure all of its population save the USA. That sort of American exceptionalism needs to go.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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