Good News on Childhood Obesity – and “Good Government.”

Mike Magee As the debate over health reform wages on, it is increasingly apparent that the real underlying issue we are grappling with is the role of “good government.” Without it, as one philosopher suggested nearly four centuries ago, life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Canada had relatively smooth sailing from the time […]

The Simplification Movement in American Healthcare

CDC Obesity Map Mike Magee As the debate over health care in America rages on, the great lie oft repeated but never defended is that our system is exceptional and too complex to wrestle to the ground. That is the breech, reinforced over half a century that has left our citizens and now our entire […]

Canada vs. U.S. Health Care: State Governance and Next Steps if Ryan Fails.

Mike Magee One of the most enduring myths that we Americans support when it comes to Canadian health care is that it is a nationally run, monolithic offering with little variability. That is patently false. In fact, Canada’s official beginnings in health governance began in the province of Saskatchewan in 1946. For several decades they […]

Canada vs. U.S. Health – Report Card

Mike Magee In 2007, the Cambridge based National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), self-defined as “the nation’s leading nonprofit economic research organization”, produced a singularly myopic white paper comparing the U.S. and Canadian health care systems. Noting that Canada is a “single-payer and mostly publicly-funded system” while the U.S. is a “multi-payer, heavily private system”, […]

The Canadian Health Care System: The Migration Myth

Mike Magee During the Hillary Clinton health care debate of the 1990’s, our approach to health care delivery was compared to multiple other nations – including Canada. Supporters of our status quo worked hard to emphasize other nations differences and weaknesses. The criticism of Canada, which even then was registering demonstrably better outcomes at a […]

Canadian Advanced Care Video Deserves To Go Viral

LINK Nathan A. Kottkamp, leader of the National Health Decisions Day movement (slated this year for April 16, 2012) had this to say about the video above: “Thanksgiving is a great time to lead by example and ‘Have the Talk’about advance care planning with your loved ones. I’m thrilled to share a new tool that […]