Few Canadians to USA, many Americans to Mexico for Helathcare

I'm Just Wondering... how the arguments of the right-wing, mainly Republican, hugely pro-healthcare-for-profit business people hold up??

Take into account the banter about how the Canadian 'univeral health' system is (supposedly) such a failure, forcing hordes of Canadians to come to the USA to seek basic and necessary healthcare.

Well, a recent research article says that is all wrong.

Katz, S.J., Cardiff, K., Pascali, M. et al (2009). Phantoms in the snow: Canadians use of health care services in the United States. Health Affairs March 2009 (Published on-line). Retrieved at
http://content.healthaffairs.org

Their conclusion is the number of Canadians coming to the USA for healthcare is "only a handful, rather than hordes".

However, Dr Gwen Driscoll of UCLA (email at gdriscoll@ucla.edu) published that in the year 2001, 952,000 people from California (alone) went to Mexico to receive health care, due to the high cost of health care in the USA, or a total lack of health-care insurance or coverage. This was a study done for the California Health Interview Survey. (ed note: not sure when the data will be journal-published).

SO... no, a significant number of people are not coming from Canada for USA healthcare, but nearly a million Americans a year are going to Mexico for affordable health care.

The pro-healthcare business people are trying to make us all scared of Univeral Health because they stand to lose soooo much $$$$ from their profit margins.

cbaj

two ps:
<>I and my family have been received healthcare from Mexico now for 18 years, and you get better care for dimes on the dollar. Anyone who wants to argue with me can contact me directly and let's go at it...
<>The 'incidental' stories about Canadians coming to the USA for healthcare are usually related to people who want exotic or unproven treatments, usually at a huge expense to the government. Odd cancer drugs... unique surgeries... high-priced treatments for rare disorders that have not proven to work... and these people have the $$ to come to the US and seek it out.
The trip on that is that those people, for the most part, would also be rejected here in the United States from public programs for those exotic or unproven treatments.
To be fair, there are a few stories of people who had problems like chronic gall bladder issues, and didn't want to wait for surgery, so they came up with the $$ and paid for it privately...