This is a critical article that intelligently summarizes some very difficult to understand stats from a more technical article that it links to. In sum and substance the most relevant part of this study focuses on the real social "payback" of Canada's so-called "socialized" medical system vs. what we get from the mess of our privatized, for-profit medical delivery system in the US. Basically the per capita costs in the US are substantially higher than what Canada pays --- but the actual per capita "payback" to citizens in Canada is substantially higher. The drug companies, medical insurers and hospitals in the US will not want an informed electorate in the US to understand this --- because it will cause us to quickly support a single-payer system under the control of the federal government. (But surprisingly enough most, but not all, doctors will support this because it delivers better health care in a fashion that is consistent with their Hippocratic Oath.) And I should add that I have a rough version of Canada's system because I have Medicare with Part D delivered through Kaiser Permanente in California. Kaiser depends on a state-of-the-art computerized records system. The entire delivery system at Kaisers works very well from my observation. And one additional payback of a single payer system in the US would be the immediate elimination of the medical insurance costs from US companies like GM, Ford and Chrysler.