In Print

A picture of health–from both sides of the border

By Kevin Steel ⋅ May 16, 2005 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

The University of Calgary is surveying Americans and Canadians who have tried the health systems in both countries

Ashley Halsey doesn’t rely on national pride or government propaganda to compare the Canadian health care system to its counterpart in the United States. She’s experienced both. The 34-year-old homemaker and mother of two has lived in Calgary for the last three years. But the Texas-born Halsey has resided in New Jersey, Chicago and throughout California, following her husband Farlin from job to job in the high-tech industry.

As someone with experience in both the U.S. and Canada, Halsey is exactly the kind of person the University of Calgary wants to hear from in a new survey aimed at comparing health systems on both sides of the border. Steven Lewis, adjunct professor of health policy at the U of C and the study’s principle investigator, says this is the first project of its kind. “When you compare any other kind of product in the world–say which car or refrigerator is better–I think you get the most valid and interesting results when you talk to people who have had experience using both,” Lewis says. He’s taking out ads in newspapers and trying to get the word out to find more people like Halsey and hear what they think. (If you think you might be a suitable participant you can get in touch at www.chaps.ucalgary.ca/american.htm).

And what exactly does Halsey think? Well, she says, in the U.S. she always knows she has access to the best health care available, and quick access to specialists and any technology available. “You can see a specialist within a week, or get an MRI,” says Halsey. Her family, she estimates, was spending about $6,000 a year on health insurance and prescriptions.

Canadian health care, she says, is excellent in terms of the quality of physicians and the level of care. That’s if you ever get to see one. “My concerns are with the wait times to see specialists and availability or access to diagnostic technology,” says Halsey. “In my own personal experience, twice since we’ve been here my family has had to see specialists, and we’ve had to wait over two months each time.” For instance, one of her preteen sons was diagnosed with sports-induced asthma and it took 10 weeks just to see a lung specialist. Halsey herself had to go to a dermatologist and waited over three months. “And when I walked into the doctor’s office there was equipment there I was sure was made or in use before I was born,” Halsey says.

That doesn’t exactly sound like a rave review of what the federal government has long insisted is the best health care system in the world–or a denunciation of the scary “U.S.-style health care” that the federal Liberals have warned is coming from Alberta’s government and the federal Tories, if left unchecked. But then, perhaps conclusions like that are best left to Lewis and his team. The results are sure to be illuminating.

[This article appeared in the May 16, 2005 issue of the Western Standard.]