US healthcare documentary

I just finished watching the Frontline documentary. It talked about the US healthcare situation. Basically, what the documentary was about was how healthcare is done in five different countries. It contrasted this against how healthcare is provided in the US.

Healthcare, in US, is very inefficient. The health expenditure per capita in the US is basically twice what it is in most other countries. That's really quite spectacular.

I don't live in the US, however I get the impression that the health care debate is incredibly politicized there. It looks like this is making it difficult for them to make any progress with their healthcare system. That's a shame.

I live in Canada. Our healthcare system has had it's share of problems recently. From what I gather, most of these problems have stemmed from underfunding. This underfunding was in turn caused by a need to service a large national debt. Now that the debt situation is under control funding is increasing again. It looks like we're doing pretty well.

Canada wasn't one of the five countries in the frontline documentary although Wikipedia apparently has an article comparing the Canadian and US health care services for those interested.

Think of it, with all the money Americans would save they could buy a couple more maglev trains. You can never really have enough maglev trains.

I like maglev trains... and efficient healthcare ... and Wikipedia. :-)