ABSTRACT
Canada, like the United States, has a federal form of government. The national government's role has been to establish a set of operational principles to which the regional governments must adhere in order to receive funding from Ottawa for their health care programs. To its American would-be copiers, Canadian health care looks like an inviting model for low-cost, high-quality service delivery. Among Canadian stakeholders, public and private, it is a fine system but seen to be under great stress. Cost control and the proper range of health services are a major issue north as well as south of the US-Canadian border. Although Canada is the English-speaking neighbor of the United States and they share both television programs and auto manufacturing companies, Germany's health care system more closely resembles that of the United States in the extent of private funding and private operation.
