In response to the need for an objective and value-free document, this volume was completed following a conference on the Canadian health care system, held April 2, 1993, on the campus of the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center in Fort Worth. The purpose of the conference was to examine the Canadian health care system to determine if there were lessons that the U.S. could learn from the Canadian experience as the United States began to undertake its first serious attempt at health care reform since 1965. The conference participants included a diverse group of health care professionals, health care policy-makers and behavioral and social scientists from the U.S. and Canada.