I spent last week in Canada talking to people engaged in health care reform in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Canada has a socialised medicine system with a lot of similarities to the UK system. The very existence of a socialised medicine system is very important to most Canadians. Many would say that it is their socialised medicine system that differentiates them from the USA.
Of course this makes our debates about health reform remarkably similar. Last year many Conservatives against reform in England believed that they could always clinch any argument by saying that the reforms being proposed were in some way ‘American’. Such a charge was meant to end argument and leave those in charge of reform without a hope.
