Health Care in Canada and the United States: Consumer Good, Social Service or Right of Citizenship?

“The perception of essential health care as an economic commodity rather than a public good is a barrier to fundamental change in health financing in the United States. Perhaps it goes too much against the grain of American political culture, with its strong sense of individualism and its inherent anti-statism, to expect that an overwhelming majority of Americans will suddenly view health care as a social service. But it is possible that this country could one day leapfrog that step by concluding, through a court decision, that certain essential health services are a right of citizenship and must be provided to everyone on the same basis.”