[snowdude]

I just started reading the thread so forgive me if this has been mentioned. There is one massive benefit of the Canadian system that people forget about because it's more of an ephemeral (like many economic benefits) one.

The universal coverage allows workers in Canada to be more mobile because they're not tied to jobs or provinces so they can have the ability to move to find work, or go back to school to improve their human capital. One only needs to think of Northern Alberta and the massive migration of people from the Atlantic provinces to see this in action.

In the US many people are locked into jobs that don't maximize their abilities or happiness simply because they need the health care coverage. This prevents mobility (along with underwater mortgages which is another issue) and people from getting better jobs (for them) or going back to school.

So, this mobility allows the Cdn economy to become much more efficient than it might otherwise be (something people only looking at the accounting cost always forget about). This of course says nothing about the equity arguments for universal/ single payer health care.