Single-Payer System

* In Sara Fritz’s article on health care reform (Sept. 6) she refers to “a Canadian-style system of socialized medicine.” In point of fact, Canada does not have socialized medicine. What they have is a national health insurance plan. Canada has more doctors working on a fee-for-service basis than the U.S. does, proportionately. While it is true that physician fees in Canada are constrained by limits negotiated between physician groups and the government, this hardly constitutes socialized medicine.

The proper generic term for the Canadian health system is “a single-payer system.” U.S. insurance companies and other powerful groups are strongly opposed to such a system. The fact that a major daily of the status of The Times would call Canada’s system “socialized medicine” is a credit to the massive misinformation campaign these groups have mounted.

GLENN T. ROGERS MD

Los Angeles