Canada and United States of America are two nations who share an open border and who are similar in many ways but yet very different on several policy fronts including the way health care services are organized, managed, delivered etc.
Population:
More than 79% of the United States population are urban (and more than 50% are estimated to be suburban), and the great majority of the inhabitants are of European descent.
And about 40% of the Canadian population is of British descent, while 27% are of French origin, 20% are of other European background, about 10% are of E or SE Asian origin, and some 3% are of aboriginal and European. Canada had the highest immigration rate of any country in the world, with more than half the total coming from Asia.
The primary difference in health status between the two countries appeared to occur among women. While more women in the U.S. reported that they were in excellent health (25% vs. 23%), there were also more reporting fair health (11%) compared with Canadian women (8%). This may reflect the higher rate of highly severe mobility limitation (7% vs. 4%) and obesity (21% vs. 13%) among American women compared with Canadian women.
Overall, more Canadians reported having a regular medical doctor compared with Americans (85% vs. 80%) Canadians were similar to insured Americans in terms of having a regular medical doctor.
American women aged 50-69 were more likely to have had a mammogram within the last 2 years compared with Canadian women of the same age (82% vs. 74%). There were, however, no differences between the two countries regarding the proportion of women 50-69 who had never had a mammogram.
Overall, more Americans reported that they had experienced an unmet health care need in the previous year compared with Canadians (13% vs. 11%)...............
