> free healthcare and preventative screening but not everyone takes advantage of it.

Sometimes these things are explained by looking at them from the other side. People aren’t taking advantage because the system wasn’t geared towards them or excludes them, or did in the past.

I have no idea what it’s like in Canada but the New Zealand healthcare system has some dark history and a history of institutional biases that are still a hinderance today. Despite being identified a long time ago, large gaps in healthcare exist here between various population groups. https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publicatio...

That is definitely true, but don't underestimate the number of patients who aren't all that interested or motivated to do what their doctor tells them to do. I worked in healthcare and even for very serious diseases, patient adherence to say taking their medicine regularly, is pretty atrocious (even when it's free).

Some of the things that have happened here are atrocious. It a while back now, but involuntary enrolment in a cervical cancer study occurred, where some patients were left to develop cancers to see if invasive cancer did actually occur.

More relevant though, and ongoing are the regular stories and findings that New Zealand is doing poorly with Maori health, with cancers found later and worse outcomes when treated. This persists after 20+ years of effort that was supposed to address it. It’s really bad as the differences in outcome are huge.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartwright_Inquiry

https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health...

https://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1907/Hauora_PrePubW.pdf