[cmahler7]

Wealthy Canadians get medical care in the US for a reason.

Here's some stats on NHS

1. 3x higher death rate after major surgeries compared to US

2. 48% of Brits haven't seen a dentist in over 2 years

3. Average surgery wait time of 18 weeks, 100 days for major surgeries.

4. 1 in 28 die due to subpar care

Universal health care = universally terrible

Source: http://www.dailywire.com/news/14470/7-things-you-need-know-a...

[corney91]

Most of these are due to lack of funding, just look at the examples given in the article -- "lack of beds and nurses" sums up a lot of them.

This makes sense when you see that the UK spends 9.78% GDP on healthcare when the US spends 16.91% (http://www.nhsconfed.org/resources/key-statistics-on-the-nhs) and you can also see we actually get great value for money when the Commonwealth Fund has rated the NHS above most other healthcare systems: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/20...

The NHS wasn't in this state in 2010 before Andrew Lansley got his hands on it. Maybe the problem lies with those who are managing it (somehow currently the imbecile fall-guy Jeremy Hunt...)

On top of that, stats like your first one are easily skewed because people in the US don't even get necessary surgeries because they can't afford it, so of course the NHS is going to have a higher rate of death afterwards!

[Fifer82]

You mean the ex culture secretary? With no experience of healthcare, finance, or anything else that the job entails? Crazy. The only thing more ridiculous is having a Chancellor with no real world business or financial experience who is known to dodge tax... oh... and now Editors a Newspaper.

[gmac]

I'll bite: across the population as a whole, the UK has much better health outcomes than the US despite spending a lot less money on healthcare. Of course, we should be spending more money, and then I expect we'd equal or even beat the US at the top too, because too much healthcare is also a bad thing, and with private healthcare that's what rich people get.

[nicky0]

Nice to see a good unbiased source referenced there.

[cmahler7]

every stat in the article is backed by a study.

[nicky0]

The selection of stats presented is still a form of bias.

[45h34jh53k4j]

So what you are saying is that only the wealthy deserve good quality healthcare? Good plan.

[cmahler7]

No I'm simply putting out facts that universal health care isn't a perfect system.

Nice strawman though

[nicky0]

Maybe not perfect, but the system was pretty good today when I went to see my doctor for free.