A Comparison of Expenditures for Physicians' Services in the United States and Canada

To the Editor: Fuchs and Hahn (Sept. 27 issue)* address one potential liability of the Canadian health care system that has been conveniently ignored in most previous analyses. With regard to the "timeliness and convenience" of surgical and nonsurgical procedures, it is not "likely" but in fact certain "that Americans with insurance find it easier to have procedures performed when and where they want." In many cases, this is very much an issue of "timeliness" from the standpoint of medical indications, as opposed to "convenience" intended to satisfy a consumer. For example, while serving as a visiting professor at a . . .