How closely is healthcare interwoven with other social issues?
When Canada instituted national health insurance, which created health care as a social right, it became a very important part of the national identity, and so it had very important consequences for other social policies that Canada adopted afterwards. A universal right to healthcare translated into a universal right to housing, income, food, shelter and so forth. It has a very important halo effect; it transformed most of Canada’s other social policies to make them more generous and egalitarian. How does health care in the U.S. compare to that of other countries that you have studied? It’s the most expensive healthcare system in the world. Canada on a per capita basis spends two-thirds as much on health care as the U.S., and Canada’s is the second most expensive. But typically most nations will spend a third to a half of what the U.S. spends. The reason the original interest in national health care emerges is that from the best available evidence that we have, if you create universal
