A Look At The North American Healthcare System

Under this system individual citizens are provided preventative care and medical treatments from primary care physicians as well as access to hospitals, dental surgery and additional medical services. With few exceptions, all citizens qualify for health coverage regardless of medical history, personal income, or standard of living. (Canadian Health Care, 2004-2007) These insurance plans are provincial or territorial and are financed by both the federal and the provincial authorities. Provinces are similar to states in the US, and Canada has 10 provinces, which are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan. From about 1940 to 1950 the American government stepped in and encouraged employers to offer health insurance as a part of employee compensation packages which in turn the supply of health insurance increased as more and more commercial insurance companies entered the market and the use of healthcare increased as medical technology became more sophisticated.

Health care is an essential service needed by citizens. As a result, the government plays an important role by designing an appropriate health care system for its citizens. In this paper, a comparison between the health care system in the U.S. and Canada has been made. Using various literary sources, the comparison has been done considering the four components of health care services delivery; financing, insurance, delivery, and payment. The findings indicate that the health care system in the U.S. is expensive but more efficient than the single-payer health care system in Canada.

Canadian Healthcare: What Is the Difference?, n.d.-b). Thus meaning, all Canadian citizens and permanent residents receive medically necessary physician and hospital services free at the point of use. Funding for universal healthcare in Canada comes from taxation. Moreover, the American and Canadian healthcare systems differ significantly in terms of cost and efficiency. Primarily, that is due to differences in funding mechanisms.

Canada and the United States have quite a few differences in their healthcare status and healthcare services. Canada has a universal coverage, no financial barriers, more equitable, no coinsurance and unequal drug benefits and the health insurance plan is administered in each province by a public agency which operates on a non-profit basis and is responsible to the provincial government; whereas, the United States have some financial barriers, there is no universal public health insurance and access primarily depends on the type and extent of coverage, responsible for administering and controlling the health care system is diffused, and involves private insurers, employers, and federal, state and local governments. Infant mortality in both countries are similar and there is a small gap between the life expectancy between the two countries.

While doing our research, which for myself started on November 13th, I learned many new things about our healthcare system. It is common knowledge in Canada that our healthcare system - also known as medicare - is social. The Canadian Healthcare System is a group of socialized healthcare insurance plans that provides coverage of all Canadians, regardless of who they are or what their socioeconomic status is. Healthcare in Canada is paid through taxes (publicly funded) and administered on a provincial or territorial basis.

Provision of care is of the utmost concern for the average citizen when it comes to health care; consequently this is a major factor when hashing out the details of legislation revolving around the health care system in both countries. “The Canadian [health care] system is government controlled, but not government owned. Doctors and facilities are privately operated(Part 5).” The U.S. health care system is the same way, both before and after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Canada takes further control of their system through regional health authorities(Northern Lights). Regional health authorities have been implemented at the provincial level by most; the remaining provinces use Local Health Integrated networks. These groups are very similar to the public health

Canada has a system that consists of socialized health insurance plans that provide coverage to all its citizens. Canada health care is largely government-funded, with most services provided by private enterprises with some publicly funds all, which is controlled and administered, within guidelines set by the federal government ("Healthy Canadians: A Federal report on Comparable Health Indicators ", 2009).

91% of hospital and 99% of physician services are funded by the public sector. Ophthalmology and dental services account for most of the private expenditures in Canada. In Canada, nearly 5% of citizens do not have a family doctor, but every Canadian citizen is covered by the national health care system. The United States has a mixed public-private system with about 45 million Americans being uninsured at any given point of time. In the US, under the Affordable Care Act, most health plans must cover most preventive services without copayments or deductibles. In the US, direct government funding is limited to Medicare, Medicaid, State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Vetarans Health Administration (VHA) and Military Health Service (MHS). A study shows nearly 44,000 Americans die each year because

Obamacare, Medicare, universal, privatized, public, parallel; these healthcare systems (HCS) may sound a little confusing and scary for a person who values their health and the health of their family. In the United States of America, there are several different options of health coverage to choose from: health insurance for people with disabilities, long term care insurance, traditional-fee-for-service, and preferred provider organization, this is just naming a few (USA.org, 2017). With all these choices, how do you know which one is the best for you and your family? Usa.org emphasizes that several questions must be considered when choosing a healthcare provider: Are there any deductibles? Can I see any doctors or go to any hospital? Will all medications be covered that the doctor prescribes? Again, seems confusing, right! Therefore, Canada's HCS is based on the patients' needs and not what they can afford (Government of Canada, 2012). Although Canada's HCS is widely known for their universal coverage, many Canadian citizens have various concerns; one being excessive wait times.

The federal, provincial and territorial governments are in charge of Canada’s health care system including the achievement of the social determinants of health such as proper housing, education, sanitation for every eligible citizen (Health Canada, 2011). Majority of the responsibilities of delivering, maintaining and improving health and social services are directed by the provincial and territorial governments, while the federal government is responsible for funding health care services to provinces and territories that are covered by the Canada Health Act (CHA), setting and ensuring that every province and territories adheres to the Canada Health Act principles and providing health and social services to certain group of people such as

Health care in the United States has been an ongoing dispute and a major concern to all involved from the provider to the consumer. There have been other countries who have a demonstrated success in providing better health care practices at an economical cost for providers and consumers. Currently the United States spends more per person on health care comparatively speaking to other countries. Perhaps taking a looking at what has worked for other counties and their current health care system will benefit the United States Affordable Care Act in adopting the best practices to deliver a health care system that actually works for all involved. Thus far there are three systems that have a proven track record respectively, Canada’s - National Health Insurance (NHI), Great Britain’s - National Health System (NHS), and Germany’s - Socialized Health Insurance (SHIS), examining each of these systems can provide useable information for the United States.

Over the past decade there has been a major debate over healthcare reform across the globe, including Canada. The Canadian health care system is called Medicare and can be described as a single-payer system. In essence, the majority of Canadians receive health care through a publicly funded system that consists of federal transfers to the ten provincial governments who then decided how the money is to be allocated in conjunction with the federal health care standards. These standards were set by the Canada Health Act of 1985 (henceforth “the Act”), which states that each province must adhere to the Act’s five main principles in order to receive funding; these principles include: universal coverage for all medically necessary care,

In America confidence in the health care system diminishes with aging. Americans believe that as they grow older, health care will be unaffordable to them. Seniors especially believe that once they depend on fixed budgets, that the American government will selectively rid them of attaining affordable health care. Just being able to afford their prescription drugs will be a situation where seniors will have to choose between food or medicine because of their decrease in household incomes. The one feature that is most effective in providing comprehensive health care in Canada is the participation of the government where citizens are completely covered for their health insurance. The best feature of health insurance in America is group health insurance. Group coverage normally offers the best benefits at a lower rate. The least effective feature of American health care is the cost of medical prescriptions and extended times of waiting to see the physicians. The least effective feature of Canada's medical health care system is also the lengthy time of waiting to see the physicians. Since most private health insurance companies in the US tell you which doctors to visit, specify which hospitals you may enter, this could be a deterrent to your treatment. In Canada this is not the case, if you are ill you may go to any hospital regardless of financial means or insurance coverage and get treated. Canadians and Americans found that increasing health care

Health care in Canada is delivered through a publicly funded health care system called Medicare, which is a universal coverage, single payer plan for all Canadians and legal residents. This health insurance pays up to 70% of all medicals costs excluding dental, eye care and medications, which is covered by private sectors. The current health care policy is guided by the provisions of the Canada Health Act 1984. Approximately 99% of physicians’ service costs and 90% of hospital care are covered by publicly funded program. Historically, Canada’s health system was dated back to 1867 when the British North American Act was passed, which gave federal government the responsibility to take care of marine hospitals and quarantine. As for the provinces, its responsibility is to manage the local hospitals, asylums, charities and other charitable organizations. To compare with the United States of America, the American government does not have a single payer program, which results in a somewhat less efficient healthcare system. Health care facilities are largely owned and operated by private sector businesses. 58% of US community hospitals are non-profit, 21% are government owned, and 21% are for-profit.

The province typically provides funding for most additional services. These can include visits to the hospital, prescription medication, routine visits to your doctor and dental coverage. If we look at the private health insurance, this type of insurance is provided because not all of the services are covered under the provincial health insurance. Some things that the provincial health care does not cover are dental services, optometrists, and prescription medications. Private health insurance plans are usually offered as part of employee benefit packages in many companies. Incentives usually include vision and dental care. Alternatively, Canadians can purchase insurance packages from private insurance providers. Accessing Canada 's health care has its benefits and downfalls. The benefits of accessing the health care system in Canada are; being able to receive health care for free if you need it. If you have a major injury and cannot afford it, it will be covered under a reasonable amount. The downfalls of the health care system in Canada are; the demand for doctors is so large because the population is growing but not enough people wanting to become doctors. The current ratio for doctors to Canadians is about 1 doctor to approximately 1000 Canadians. This is an extreme amount of people for one person to deal with. This also causes an issue for waiting time when