Canada Health Costs vs United States

As health costs shoot into the stratosphere, the U.S. has turned to Canada for a steady supply of low-cost drugs and medical care. Overall, medical tourism -- in which U.S. citizens travel to other countries simply for cheap care -- doubled over the course of one year (from 2006-2007).

The Key Issue? Cost.

The key issue was cost. And the perfect illustration is a comparison with Canada. Our neighbors to the north have been able to spend the same amount of money administering free, universal coverage to its 27 million citizens as the single region of New England in the U.S. (which has a meager population of 2.5 million).

Obviously, costs have gone haywire. Have the added costs provided more quality in health care? Or are these costs simply attributable to mismanagement and inefficiencies. Expect this issue to come up more during this year's election coverage.