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Canucks versus Yankees: the Case for Universal Health Care over Private Health Care and How Psychiatry Benefits

Carandang Carlo

As an American –born –raised -trained psychiatrist who has practiced in the United States and now practicing in Canada, it affords me a unique perspective on the health care debates occurring in my home country. The debate regarding health care reform in the States has been heated on both sides. Even doctors are entrenched in one of the opposing positions, with the majority of U.S. physicians supporting reform with a public option [1]. However, it is difficult to discern fact from propaganda on either side, for or against universal health care. One particular problem is the misinformation and fear-mongering that has been covered regarding Canadian universal health care. In this commentary, I will attempt to make the case for universal health care, and focus specifically on the benefits of universal health care for psychiatry. I want to make the case that corporate medicine is detrimental to psychiatry, and how psychiatry practiced within a universal health care system is substantially different from that practiced within a managed care system.