I got this alert from Michael Tanner's new Cato study. 

Of Americans who could benefit from statins, lipid-lowering medications that reduce cholesterol and protect against heart disease, 44 percent take the drug.  That number seems low until compared with the 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Britons, and 17 percent of Italians who could both benefit from the drug and receive it.  Similarly, 60 percent of Americans taking anti-psychotic medication for the treatment of schizophrenia or other mental illnesses are taking the most recent generation of drugs, which have fewer side effects.  But just 20 percent of Spanish patients and 10 percent of Germans receive the most recent drugs. 

The original source:  A study by Prof. Oliver Schoffski, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, for the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations. 

A Canadian woman with ovarian cancer faced treatment delays in Canada.  So she crossed the border and had life-saving surgery in Michigan, just in the nick of time.  On return, she faced a six-week wait for chemotherapy.  So she went back to the U.S. for chemo as well.  The Canadian government won't pay the bills.  The reason:  the woman didn't fill out the right forms in a timely manner.  Full story here.

According to Michael Moore, when you get health care in Britain nobody ever asks you to pay anything.  Well, not quite.  One out of every four health care pounds is spent privately according to this report.