Hi everyone! Thanks for great turnout at our first Queen's Social Medicine meeting on Essential Medicine. Hopefully the next topic will invite just as much lively discussion.In 2004, Canadians voted Tommy Douglas, father of medicare, as our 'Greatest Canadian.' Beating out the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Pierre Trudeau, this was not only a testament to the stature of Douglas, but also showed the value we place on our health system and has surrounded the debate on how to move reform forward.
Many reformers have looked outside our own borders to draw lessons for change at home. Our closest neighbour has garnered much of that attention and was the focus of the 5th bi-annual Munk Debate (June 2010).
Debating the resolution "Be it resolved I would rather get sick in the United States than in Canada" were physician leaders from both countries. On the PRO side was Bill Frist (former US Senate leader and surgeon) and David Gratzer (Canadian psychiatrist with a cross-border practice). On the CON position was Howard Dean (former Governor of Vermont, US presdentital candidate and family physician) and Bob Bell (CEO of UHN and surgeon).
If you have 15 minutes:
Check out this excellent summary from Steve Paikan of TVO's public affairs program 'The Agenda.'
If you have 60 minutes or more:
CBC Idea's has a 53 minute abridged version of the debate available here. If you're a fan of podcasts, it's also available through iTunes.
If you'd like to see the entire debate uncut and in video, you can watch it from the Munk Debates website.
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Perhaps more important than the current state of health care in our country is he direction we are heading. The CMA's recent policy statement was certainly a nice step away from the old chants of "USA, USA" that we have heard for a few years. However, it seemed to read a lot more like one of my rants than anything all that useful. For a good critique, see Stephen Lewis's comments:
ReplyDeletewww.lon woods.com/content/21904
That should read
ReplyDeletewww.longwoods.com/content/21904
Damn iPad
Also, here is that BMJ article that I was talking about last time, which seems like it is also somewhat applicable to this conversation. It is the analysis of mortality rate vs wealth of cities, and although it showed a linear relationship between wealth and health in the US, it did not in Canada.
ReplyDeleteIt is in no way a perfect study, using stats with uncertain significance, and a host of other problems, but it is still interesting. There are also some interesting responses, that may play into a discussion about American versus Canadian healthcare.
http://www.bmj.com/content/320/7239/898.abstract