[oezi]

Well the US spends 17% of GDP on health care and Canada only spends 12% while life expectancy in the US is at least 2 years less.

You get superb care for the rich and mediocre care for the average guy and very little for the rest.

[tptacek]

Life expectancy is, perhaps counterintuitively, not highly connected to health care. The major factors contributing to the gap between US and Canadian life expectancy are car accidents, homicides, and cardiovascular disease, and CVD differs wildly depending where you are in the country; there are states that lead the G7 in CVD outcomes, and others (like Mississippi and Alabama) that look like developing-world countries.

None of this is to defend the US system in particular, which wildly overspends on the outcomes it achieves. But generally, when it comes to managing chronic and acute health conditions, those outcomes are very good.