In Switzerland, the way the health care system is organized has evolved in the opposite direction of Canada's, where the trend has rather been toward ever more centralized regulation and public financing. When all is said and done, the Swiss experience shows once again that the private sector can contribute constructively and efficiently to the provision of services within a public health care system without threatening the goals of fair and universal access to care.

Grumpy and worried though Americans may be, they can take some comfort from the fact that unlike in China, 60 per cent of the wealthy do not want to emigrate, and unlike Russia according to recent polls, nor do about 40 per cent of their whole population.