Why Do Canadians Live Longer Than Americans?

[Perknose]

Could it be because of their universal health care system?

From the article:

When severity of disease, age and other variables were taken into account, Canadians had a 34% lower death rate than American patients overall.

US patients with private insurance had a similar life expectancy as their Canadian counterparts, whereas Canadians had a 44% lower death rate than Americans on Medicaid. The uninsured fared the worst - Canadians had a 77% lower death rate than Americans who had no insurance at all.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Canadians live almost three years longer than Americans overall.

This difference can be observed in a variety of diseases.

Dr PJ Devereaux, a researcher at McMaster University, says that studies of patients with end-stage renal failure show that Canadians live longer than Americans because the quality of care is better. He says for-profit health clinics in the US spend more on marketing, and less on qualified staff.

 

[Azuma Hazuki]

Is this a rhetorical question? It's because the US is the only first world country that doesn't have universal health care, and this is by design; the wealthy elite want us plebs miserable and dead.

 

[sandorski]

Refrigeration.

 

[momeNt]

It is nearly universal. Obamacare dropped the number of uninsured to below 10%.

I think maybe the word you are looking for isn't universal, but perhaps single payer, or otherwise more subsidized than insurance in USA. Germany doesn't have single payer but it is universal similar to ACA, I believe the statutory part of their healthcare is enforced differently and their cost of care as % of GDP is more inline with Canada and the rest of the 1st world nations.

 

[woolfe9998]

Not exactly a shocker, the startling revelation that not having health insurance is...bad for your health. But this is America, where "market driven" approaches to healthcare are more important than the health of our citizenry.

 

[vi edit]

If I had to put a finger on a generality, it would be access to care and correcting small things before they become big things. The US is the master of fixing you when you are majorly fucked up. We keep people alive that are actively trying to kill themselves or should be dead. But completely ignore basic health and prevention that could and prevented those issues in the first place.

The money is in specialties and diagnostic. It's not in well care and routine checkups.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Could it be because of their universal health care system?

From the article:

The answer is not that simple.

But Erin Strumpf, who researches public health at McGill University in Montreal, says it is not so simple.

With so many factors affecting health, such as lifestyle and genetics, it can be difficult to draw broad conclusions about why Canadians live longer. Rates of obesity and smoking, and socioeconomic factors may all impact the different outcomes we see in the US.

"People like the explanation of universal health coverage; people like the explanation of more redistributive social programmes," she says.

"But it is a challenging thing, to really understand what causes those differences."

There's a whole lot going on.

 

[Jaskalas]

It is nearly universal. Obamacare dropped the number of uninsured to below 10%.

Having a private jet is cool too, but not if you cannot afford to use the thing.

Could it be because of their universal health care system?

Was violence taken into account? Chicago cannot be good for life expectancy.

 

[momeNt]

Having a private jet is cool too, but not if you cannot afford to use the thing.



Was violence taken into account? Chicago cannot be good for life expectancy.

I was simply clarifying that he maybe should not have used the word universal, and maybe have been more specific, in order to better analyze the problem. If everybody has insurance but it wouldn't cover the 60 pills a day the man with CF has to take to live to get that 10 year life expectancy advantage over the USA patient, they are both universal, and yet still have different life expectancy...

 

[Perknose]

Was violence taken into account? Chicago cannot be good for life expectancy.

In this unambiguous statistic, yes:

"When severity of disease, age and other variables were taken into account, Canadians had a 34% lower death rate than American patients overall."

The answer is not that simple.
There's a whole lot going on.

Yes, but, again, this statistic is unambiguous and telling:

"When severity of disease, age and other variables were taken into account, Canadians had a 34% lower death rate than American patients overall."

As is this, again from my OP:

"Dr PJ Devereaux, a researcher at McMaster University, says that studies of patients with end-stage renal failure show that Canadians live longer than Americans because the quality of care is better. He says for-profit health clinics in the US spend more on marketing, and less on qualified staff."

It's almost as if some folks don't want to acknowledge the elephant in our particular political room.

 

[woolfe9998]

The answer is not that simple.


There's a whole lot going on.

I'm not too sure about that. The study says: "Differences in cystic fibrosis survival between Canada and the United States persisted after adjustment for risk factors associated with survival, except for private-insurance status among U.S. patients."

While it's possible the study didn't do a perfect job of controlling for all risk factors, do you really think that basic access to care by way of insurance isn't a significant factor in survival? I think it's a matter of common sense.

 

[sandorski]

One factor here(Canada) is that your Care is based upon your Need, not your Wallet. Whether you are Homeless or a Multi-Millionaire you get the same Care for the same ailment. The Multi-Millionaire certainly has the ability to go to the US or elsewhere if they prefer though and sometimes they do.

 

[vi edit]

One factor here(Canada) is that your Care is based upon your Need, not your Wallet. Whether you are Homeless or a Multi-Millionaire you get the same Care for the same ailment. The Multi-Millionaire certainly has the ability to go to the US or elsewhere if they prefer though and sometimes they do.

Don't you guys have some sort of supplemental insurance you can buy that gets you improved or sped up access to things like MRI's and surgical procedures?

 

[sandorski]

Don't you guys have some sort of supplemental insurance you can buy that gets you improved or sped up access to things like MRI's and surgical procedures?

No. What can be supplemented are things like Private Hospital rooms.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I'm not too sure about that. The study says: "Differences in cystic fibrosis survival between Canada and the United States persisted after adjustment for risk factors associated with survival, except for private-insurance status among U.S. patients."

While it's possible the study didn't do a perfect job of controlling for all risk factors, do you really think that basic access to care by way of insurance isn't a significant factor in survival? I think it's a matter of common sense.

Naturally different systems will have different outcomes. Having coverage is obviously a huge factor. My point is that the situation is more complicated and thus I would not expect to see life expectancies to change to match Canada. Other factors would need to be taken into account such as lifestyles we embrace and those forced on us. For example most full time health care workers have good insurance and access to equal standards of care yet lifespans are far from equal, many years in fact.

I went to a conference on health care providers which covered many things, legal, educational, and in terms of well being. Pharmacists have the lowest life expectancy of the professions, five years less than the average person, not just care providers. I should not wonder if we were to break down occupations into categories we would not find the same thing. It may well be that some of those years we lose in America involve considerably more than care proper. What are the factors? What is their impact? What if anything can be done to mitigate them? I don't think anyone has done the comprehensive work to adequately define these things and they're important too. Again that does not mean we have a perfect system, far from it.

It's known that productivity increases when there is more time off, scheduling more favorable to workers, and siestas built in - significant breaks where one can relax or snooze. These are factors that improve quality of life and health too. But we are Puritanical slaves to the clock and "common sense" says we drive people ever harder to get more done. No that's not how that works.

 

[hal2kilo]

Round ham like breakfast meat.

 

[LevelSea]

I'd rather die three years earlier than have to wake up every morning knowing that I'm a Canadian.

Was poutine consumption one of the variables taken into account, eh?

 

[Blackjack200]

In Japan an MRI is $160.

But we can't afford universal health care. Or something.

 

[stormkroe]

No. What can be supplemented are things like Private Hospital rooms.

Not sure how it is in BC, but in Alberta you absolutely can pay for faster services like MRI's...

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

In Japan an MRI is $160.

But we can't afford universal health care. Or something.

They do it by having 1/3 the number of radiologists and less supporting staff.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Two words. Preventative care. Health prevention and health promotion measures. It isn't how much you spend. It's where you spend it.

 

[NAC4EV]

These may be a contributing factors:

1. In the USA there are more guns than people . Canadians are not so prone to violence.
2. Canadians have universal healthcare.
3. Soon we are going to have legalized marijuana

 

[Pipeline 1010]

In this unambiguous statistic, yes:

"When severity of disease, age and other variables were taken into account, Canadians had a 34% lower death rate than American patients overall."

What is meant by the term "death rate"? Everyone dies, so this must be limited to a certain time frame. What constitutes a "American patient"? Is this statistic limited to only people who have a certain disease or are at a hospital?

I want to make it clear that I'm not challenging this statistic; I just want to know what it means.

 

[sandorski]

Not sure how it is in BC, but in Alberta you absolutely can pay for faster services like MRI's...

Is that at a Private Clinic or Public Hospital?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Unfortunately the paper isn't available at my institution to see exactly what they take into consideration regarding lifespans. A little suspect that the story wants to make a direct comparison between the two countries when the abstract explicitly states "Direct comparison of survival estimates between national registries is challenging because of inherent differences in methodologies used, data processing techniques, and ascertainment bias." A much older study found that Americans had the best or nearly the best 5-year survival rates for a few kinds of cancer, though in all cases Canadian survival rates were nearly equal. Perhaps they've overtaken us.

EDIT: An article by the paper's authors with a little more info than the BBC story. From what they've written there, it sounds like differences in lung transplant priority are a major reason, which could be a direct result of UHC but might not be. The fact that overall lung transplant rates are lower seems to imply that it might be more an arbitrary AMA decision/excessively strict standard than anything else; after all, if you can make more $$$ for your practice by reeling in the lungs to sell to wealthier patients, why wouldn't you?

EDIT #2: Apparently this is called the "lung allocation system" and was implemented to prioritize certain patients over others according to the kind of disease, replacing a first-come first-serve system (per Wikipedia and a paper I found quickly). I'm finding some stuff indicating that cystic fibrosis deaths had already been noted on the increase following the implementation of that standard, so it would be nice if the story in the OP looked at other forms of lung disease that have actually improved in the USA over the same time period.