Reductions in age-specific mortality among children and seniors in Canada and the United States, 1971-1989.

We compared mortality rates for children and seniors in Canada and the United States in 1971 and 1989. Children in Canada experienced a greater decrease in mortality during this period than did all children in the United States. In particular, while mortality rates for both boys and girls in Canada were higher than those for White children in the United States in 1971, in 1989 the rates for Canadian children were lower. Seniors in Canada experienced a similar or lesser reduction in age-specific mortality than did seniors in the United States. Even though senior women in the United States experienced a reduction in mortality comparable to that of senior women in Canada, Canadian senior women in general had lower level of mortality than their counterparts in the United States. Senior men in the United States experienced a relatively greater reduction than did their counterparts in Canada. The greater decline in mortality for senior men in the United States enabled them to catch up with the lower level of mortality for their Canadian counterparts in 1989. These general conclusions apply whether we compare the Canadian experience to that of the entire population or the White population in the United States. These trends in mortality reductions may reflect the fact that free universal Medicare is available for all ages in Canada, while most publicly-funded Medicare entitlements begin at age 65 in the United States.