Ships That Pass In the Night In Detroit
"Terry" left a comment in yesterday's post about people wanting to emigrate from the US because they just can't handle any more George W. Bush:
I ran across this story yesterday on the web & because they never mentioned the immigrant stream headed the other direction (Canada to US) I did a little research.
Canadian immigration officials & lawyers mentioned in the article Mitch quotes from that they may see 18,000 US to Canada immigrants this year rather than usual 6,000. No idea how many will make that move permanent rather than temporary, eg renounce their US citizenship. The US population is now approaching 300 million. 25,000 Canadians emigrate to the US each year, mostly doctors and other health professionals. Apparently they don't do well under Canada's single-payer national health plan. The population of Canada is a bit over 45 million.
A great point. And I've read the same figure.
If the figures were in relative proportion to the population, the Canadian emigration numbers would translate to 270,000 Americans leaving every year.
I've read - but can't confirm right now - that nearly half of the Canadian efflux is from the healthcare industry. Anecdotally, probably the wealthiest man in my hometown was a Canadian urologist who left Winnipeg in the seventies to move to North Dakota, settling in Jamestown and starting a practice that paid for a huge house, a string of businesses around town that served as either extra change or tax writeoffs, and enough sports cars (he raced as a hobby) for a good-sized Shrine parade.
You just couldn't do that in Winnipeg.
Is that a good thing? Why not?
In any event, I'm happy to trade doctors for web designers any day.
Posted by Mitch at
February 8, 2005 08:03 AM
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Mitch, it's a good thing to the extent it is not the result of medical expertise being in short supply due the medical and education cartels. It's hard to prove, but I strongly suspect that there would be many more doctors, making less money on a per-doctor basis, if the supply wan't being restricted by regulation that does not add to public safety. This isn't an endorsement of the Canadian system, of course, but it would serve us well to recognize the distortions in our system.
Posted by: Will Allen at February 8, 2005 12:14 PMAshwell?
Posted by: fingers at February 8, 2005 06:44 PMMedical education is not cheap or fast. Nor is there a limitless supply of qualified people willing to work/study 60-80 hours per week and take until age 30+ to make a buck (with many six figure school debts). How much would you like to raise taxes for your six month wait for cardiac surgery?
Posted by: tim at February 8, 2005 09:21 PMWell, I suppose it's a good thing that my first attempt to comment was wifed--rather, wiped--out.
Anyway, you post so often that I'm not certain that you've commented on Craig (when's he joining the Northern Alliance, or did I miss his induction too) Westover's "Canadian health care is a 'paper tiger'". http://craigwestover.blogspot.com/2005/02/column-canadian-health-care-is-paper.html
Posted by: Old Whig at February 8, 2005 11:24 PMtim ,I never said the supply was limitless. I said the supply would be greater, absent distortions that result from our education and medical industry cartels. Why must people always raise the strawman that implies any criticism of the U.S. system, which is certaintly hampered by a great deal of central planning, includes an endorsement of the Canadian plan, or some other single-payer system?
Posted by: Will Allen at February 8, 2005 11:48 PMLawyers, engineers and comedians find the journey south rewarding, too.
Posted by: faeroe at February 9, 2005 08:33 AM