Canada-US Health Summit 2015

At the two-day Canada-U.S. Health Summit, experts discussed issues facing healthcare services in the United States and Canada through a variety of panels, discussions, and events. During the lunch keynote, Susan Dentzer, Senior Advisor to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, interviewed former Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. Dentzer asked a variety of questions on the former Secretary’s experiences with Canadian Health Ministers and the Canadian health system. Former Secretary Sebelius said her relationships with the Health Ministers of Canada were “incredibly important” and there was a great deal of dialogue on regulatory issues and research projects, but little discussion of drug prices. Looking at the Canadian system, it was said there is a certain amount of envy that Canada spends half of its per capita on their health systems as opposed to the U.S., and has better results. Also, former Secretary Sebelius said that there is a huge opportunity to move from a sick care system to a health system that rewards primary care doctors for keeping people healthy rather than the number of interactions they have with patients. The event overall was marked with great success, and the Wilson Center would like to extend a thank you to our sponsors: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, GS1 Canada, Dun & Bradstreet, and Medtronic.