Events Detail

Is Canadian Healthcare a Model for the U.S.?

Wednesday, December 3
4:00 – 5:30PM

        Sands, Boychuk, Dworkin, and Kuttner

President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to address the issue of health insurance for all Americans.  In the debate about the U.S. health care, Canada's single-payer health care system is often heralded.  Is Canada's system actually a good model?  What are the lessons for U.S. healthcare reform?

At this event, Gerard Boychuk, Director of Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, discussed his new book, National Health Insurance in the United States and Canada: Race, Territory and the Roots of Difference (Georgetown University Press 2008). In this new study, Boychuk probes the historical development of healthcare in each country, honing in on distinctive social and political aspects—the politics of race in the U.S. and territorial politics in Canada.

In addition to the politics of race and territory, Boychuk sifts through political, cultural, and institutional factors shaping health policy, and presents a nuanced and thoughtful analysis of the evolution of the two systems, compares them as they exist today, and reflects on how each is poised to meet the challenges of the future.

Click here to view Dr. Boychuk's presentation

Boychuk was joined for this discussion by two distinguished Hudson scholars with expertise on healthcare policy, Senior Fellow and practicing physician Ronald Dworkin, M.D., and Visiting Fellow and former health policy advisor in the George H.W. Bush administration, Hanns Kuttner. Hudson Senior Fellow Christopher Sands, a specialist on Canada and North American relations, served as moderator.

Click here to purchase Dr. Boychuk's book

 Betsy and Walter Stern Conference Center
Hudson Institute
1015 15th St, NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20005