Kate has a terrific post up summarizing some research done into Canadians crossing the border for care. Put shortly, it doesn't happen:
The authors used some nifty methodology, including surveying numerous US hospitals along the border, as well as institutions generally regarded as "America's Best Hospitals". On the Canadian side, they used the National Population Health Survey (which literally asks, "In the past twelve months did you receive any health care services in the United States?" and "Did you go there primarily to get these services?"), as well as querying insurance companies on the Canadian side about the popularity of policies that cover US institutions.
[...]
the most striking stats come from the Canadian National Population Health Survey (NPHS). From the article:
"Only 90 of 18,000 respondents to the 1996 Canadian NPHS indicated that they had received care in the United States during the previous twelve months, and only twenty had indicated that they had gone to the United States expressly for the purpose of getting that care."
Only 20 of 18,000 sought care in the United States. I can't believe how many people are coming over here! Their system but be truly awful.
[...]
Polling data from 2003 (approximately a year after the Health Affairs article) indicates that 8% answered YES to the following question:
"Have you ever bought prescription drugs from Canada or other countries outside the United States in order to pay a lower price?"
If 8% of the 18,000 Canadians polled in NPHS had expressly sought care in the United States, that would be 1,440. Not 20, as the survey showed.
Read the whole thing. The scare tales of Canadians flooding across the border for access to our health care system are simply untrue. Indeed, the number of Canadians coming here is dwarfed by the number of Americans escaping over there for cheaper drug prices. As it is, the research proving that has been floating around for years, it's just that the Republicans in the debate hide from it and the Democrats don't know about it. That has to stop. So head over to Kate's place and spread the word -- in the health care debate, the facts are on our side, but that means nothing if we don't know them.
