On 10/16/07, Alan B. Pearce wrote: > >Then why do health care costs decrease and quality increases > >with a single payer health care system like Canada? > > Do the costs really decrease, or are the increases actually invisible to the > general populace? Is the quality really increasing or is it actually > stagnating because people don't know of new drugs and treatments that are > not being used? That is a good question and I don't know the answer. But I haven't seen much criticism of the costs. I have seen criticism of other metrics. Apparently infant mortality rates are measured differently between countries, which is why the US does not perform as well as other countries. "The exclusion of any high-risk infants from the denominator or numerator in reported IMRs can be problematic for comparisons. The United States counts an infant exhibiting any sign of life as alive, no matter the month of gestation or the size, but some other countries differ in these practices. For example, in Germany and Austria, fetal weight must reach one pound to be counted as a live birth, while in some other countries, including Switzerland, the baby must be at least 12 inches long. Both Belgium and France report babies as born lifeless if they are less than 26 weeks' gestation." Alex -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist