[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 173 (Friday, November 3, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16679-S16680]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             ALL BETTER NOW

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, a longtime friend who headed my 
Illinois operation for many years and still is associated with me, 
Jerry Sinclair, once again showed why he is a valuable friend by 
sending a column that appeared in World Business in their September-
October 1995 issue.
  It deals with the Canadian health care system written by Diane 
Francis, the editor of Canada's foremost business newspaper, the 
Financial Post. It views things from a business perspective. She is the 
author of five books on business.
  Ms. Francis spells out very clearly why the Canadian health care 
system is far superior to the United States system.
  The propaganda spread against the Canadian system here in the United 
States by those who profit from the present system terribly distorts 
what the Canadians have. This column helps to balance that.
  I would add, in the last poll I saw of Canadian citizens, exactly 3 
percent of them said they would prefer the United States system of 
health care to theirs. That does not, as this column points out, 
suggest there are no problems with the Canadian system. But they 
deliver superior health care to their 

[[Page S 16680]]
citizens. We spend more and do a worse job.
  Ms. Francis quotes a Peat Marwick 1995 study titled, ``A Comparison 
of Business Costs in Canada and the United States.''
  Listen to this analysis: ``Costs of hospitals, surgical, medical, and 
major medical insurance premiums are the prime reason for the 
difference in costs. These insurance premiums represent a cost of 8.2 
percent of gross pay in the United States compared with 1.0 percent in 
Canada.''
  American businesses who, frankly, fell down on the job, when they 
should have been backing the Clinton plan, ought to be taking a good 
look at what is happening in Canada.
  I ask unanimous consent that the Diane Francis column be printed in 
the Congressional Record at this point.
  The column follows:

                             All Better Now

       Among the health care systems of the world's wealthiest 
     industrialized countries, the United States' is the most 
     expensive; even worse, it fails to provide health care for 
     all Americans. Canada, on the other hand, provides excellent, 
     comprehensive coverage to all of its citizens. Its system, 
     administered jointly by the federal government and the twelve 
     provincial governments, provides Canadian business with an 
     enormous competitive advantage. And yet vested interest in 
     the United States--including doctors, privately owned health 
     care facilities, and insurance companies--have lobbied 
     against government systems such as Canada's. They say that 
     Canadians must wait months for procedures. This is simply not 
     the case. They would also have Americans believe that 
     Canadian hospitals are second-rate, and that Canadian 
     physicians are poorly trained. These are also not so.
       The same type of lobbying took place in Canada in the late 
     1960s, when the government-run plan was first implemented. It 
     is interesting to note that Vice President Al Gore became a 
     fan of Canada's health system after his seriously brain-
     injured son was successfully operated on in Toronto by one of 
     the world's best neurosurgical pediatrics teams.
       A look at the facts leaves little doubt that the Canadian 
     system is superior. An average of 6.3 out of every 1,000 
     babies born die before the age of 1 in Canada, as opposed to 
     8.3 in the United States. Life expectancies in Canada are 81 
     years for women and 74.5 for men, compared with 78.9 and 72.1 
     years, respectively, in the United States. Yet the 
     Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an 
     international monitoring group, reports that while Canada 
     spends just 10.2 percent of its gross domestic product on 
     health care services for all its citizens, the United States 
     spends 14.1 percent and still has millions of citizens with 
     inadequate or nonexistent coverage.
       It isn't just the individual that benefits from Canada's 
     comprehensive health program. The Canadian system affords 
     business many advantages, including reduced employee costs 
     and an expanded, healthier labor pool. According to a March 
     1995 study by KPMG Peat Marwick called ``A Comparison of 
     Business Costs in Canada and the United States,'' Canadian 
     employers spend less on employer-sponsored benefits than 
     their American counterparts. ``Costs for hospital, surgical, 
     medical and major medical insurance premiums are the prime 
     reason for the difference in costs,'' the study says. ``These 
     insurance premiums represent a cost of 8.2% of gross pay in 
     the United States compared with 1.0% in Canada.''
       Unlike in the United States, Canadian health coverage is 
     not tied to welfare benefits; unskilled workers can take low-
     paying entry-level jobs without fear of losing access to 
     government-paid health care. This removes the possibility 
     of creating an entrenched underclass with health problems 
     who are handcuffed to welfare because of medical-cost 
     issues.
       Businesses in Canada are also able to hire workers 
     regardless of their health history. This is particularly 
     important when it comes to using the talents and efforts of 
     senior citizens, or people with chronic illnesses. Canadian 
     workers aren't trapped in dead-end or unsatisfactory jobs 
     because they are afraid of losing company-provided health 
     benefits.
       Reduced labor costs are not the only corporate benefit of 
     the Canadian system. Individuals rarely file the type of 
     high-stakes personal injury lawsuits commonly seen in the 
     United States. Because all citizens are guaranteed quality 
     medical care, catastrophic medical expenses, generally the 
     largest component of a settlement, are usually not sought 
     when such suits are filed. In the United States, product 
     liability insurance converge costs corporations upwards of 
     $500 million a year, and the premiums are growing by 20 
     percent to 30 percent annually. Insurance costs are 
     dramatically lower in Canada--unless a manufacturer is 
     exporting to the United States.
       Canada's government-run workers' compensation plan is 
     managed by the provincial governments, in contrast to the 
     patchwork quilt of private and public systems at various 
     levels of government in the United States. The workers' 
     compensation premium for a Canadian autoworker in London, 
     Ontario, is 4.56-percent of his or her wages; for an American 
     autoworker in Minneapolis, it is 9.07 percent, according to 
     the KPMG comparative report.
       Business should be free to conduct business, and in Canada 
     this is so. There is no need for every company to have 
     personnel employed just to handle the paper burden of 
     private-sector workers' compensation or health care.
       Canada's systems is not perfect; nor is Canadian business 
     able to outcompete American business at every turn as a 
     result of cradle-to-grave medical care for its population. 
     But the advantages to citizen and business alike are very 
     real. And as American health care costs outpace economic 
     growth and the country's population ages, a dose of Canadian 
     medicine may cure what ails it. Failing that, the United 
     States' system will make its insured workers increasingly 
     expensive to employ and its uninsured workers increasingly 
     unable to afford proper health care.
       Diane Francis is editor of Canada's foremost business 
     newspaper, The Financial Post, and the author of five books 
     on business. She also writes a monthly column for Maclean's, 
     Canada's national news magazine.

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