Health Economics: Pros And Cons To The Healthcare System

The purpose of this paper is to compare the Canadian and the United States health care system. the first part of the paper will focus on describing each country health care system. The second part will focus on analyzing, evaluating and comparing these two countries system efficiency and benefits. The last part, is an overview of the recent policies changes and its effect (positive and negative) on each country citizens and proposed future reforms for better coverage in these countries.

Germany’s healthcare system is split into two types of coverage which is public and private health insurance. Health insurance companies are not able to deny people coverage due to pre-existing illnesses or to discontinue their treatment because of high costs. The public health care insurance is provided by statute to individuals who are not eligible for private insurance which is people who are salary and make under $50,000 annually. As people age and become ill, they are able to opt out of their insurance and turn to the government’s option. As the economy continues to fluctuate, the population of Germany relies more heavily on the legislative insurance which consists of 85-90% of the population.

The health care system differs from the system in the U.S. is that they make everyone all citizens buy insurance and the poor are subsidzed.

In this paper, there will be a comparative analysis to the United States (U.S.) healthcare system and Canadians healthcare system highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of both.

Germany’s health care system pays for not only healthcare basics but also dental, optical, mental health. They will also pay for alternative therapies like homeopathy, to go to a spa, and more. The healthcare system is highly accepted by the German population. Pregnant women pay nothing for their care, while most Germans have a co-pay of $15 dollars once every 3 months for their doctor visits (Saul, 2014).

The Australian health care system is not a very complicated one, it is solely based on two main sectors which are the ‘public’ and ‘private’. The public sector allows one to claim health care benefits and payments through the universal health coverage developed by the Australian government, called Medicare. Medicare is completely free and paid by the government through income tax received to help pay for medical, optical and hospital care (Humanservicesgovau, 2016). It also has a sub-division called the ‘Medicare safety net’ which is more so given to those on significantly low incomes to aid in financial distress. Similarly, the private sector is made up of different companies entitling different benefits, usually consisting of two plans, ‘hospital’ and ‘generic’ (Privatehealthgovau, 2016). The private health care system is more so for people who need immediate attention as the public health system has a waiting list for many different types of operations. Private health system is also customisable in circumstances such as

1A. Market failure is a situation in which the allocation of goods and services is not efficient. In any given market, the quantity of a product demanded by consumers does not equate to the quantity supplied by suppliers. This is a direct result of a lack of certain economically ideal factors, which prevents equilibrium.

Germany has a market based health system. They have universal health care that covers medical, dental, mental health and even homeopathy. Insurance companies cannot make a profit from insured customers. Therefore, the price for insurance is negotiated between the government and the Insurance provider. Like any other healthcare system there are

According to data presented by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the US health care cost exceeded $ 8,000 per capita, in 2010, comparing to the next most expensive system (Norway) $5,000 per capita (OECD Health Data, 2012). Despite being the most expensive system in the word, US healthcare system has failed on many areas of performance and quality. According to OECD data, US has much lower life expectancy than other industrialized countries, also the infant mortality rate is higher than those countries. Moreover, the US is the only industrialized country that does not provide its citizens a protection of a universal health care coverage.

There are 10 key economic concepts of health care. Each of the economic concepts is important when evaluating the different issues related to health care such as the increasing cost of health care. Henderson (2015), list the 10 concepts as follows: scarcity and choice, opportunity cost, marginal analysis, self-interest, markets and pricing, supply and demand, competition, efficiency, market failure, and comparative, advantage. The concept scarcity and choice address the issues related to the limited supply resources and the need to economize (Henderson, 2015). An illustration of the importance of the scarcity and choice concept is when there is a low quantity of available resources to meet the demand of individuals and rationing occurs. Opportunity cost emphasizes

What does America have to show for all the money it is spending on health care? It wouldn’t be unreasonable to speculate that the U. S. would have the lowest infant mortality, the highest life expectancy, and the most efficient health care in the world. Unfortunately, however, that is not the case. The United States according to the same article, ranks 46th out of 48th in health care efficiency, Serbia and Brazil are the only two ranking lower. Infant mortality and life expectancy in the United States rank 167thand 44th out of 224 respectivelyaccording to the CIA World Factbook (2015). Additionally, approximately 15 percent of people in the U.S. are still uninsured. The return on investment in health care needs to have better results; a system that provides the highest quality care that leaves no one out.

In our healthcare system we have put money before the people, like we have in almost every problem in America. It seems to me we have replaced the need of everyone in America with the need of people's money. I have researched a lot of our health care situations in America and all the different opportunities we have to offer, I have found, Medicaid for the people who are less fortunate, Obama care, and Healthcare. In my life I have used Medicaid a lot.I came from a less fortunate family where we couldn't afford dental check ups and doctor visits so the government helped us out in that crisis we were in. I was then adopted in 2014 and it was then that I realized that all my life I thought that I could always just rely on the government and

The type of health care plans funded in the U.S. that a citizen may utilize depends on the citizen’s age or employer. The funding which is provided to each health care program is then allocated to a particular type of health care plan. Major public programs including Medicaid, CHIP and Medicare tend to be fund managed care plans such as health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations which get funds from the government. These programs are social welfare provisions. However, programs which are privately funded use plans right across the board, including point of service plans and indemnity plans, which tend to be group insurance and individual insurance plans (Health Insurance Companies.org, n.d.). Since the publicly funded Canadian health care system has no barriers or red tape as to how Canadian health care consumers use the health care system there is less confusion that is responsible for the cost of medical services unlike U.S. citizens who deal with a variety of types of health care services and cost levels they are responsible for.

Most government financed systems are inclined to make available for every person living in the nation with treatment which proposes access to some fundamental level of care. Majority of people pay for coverage through taxes and additional charges. In government financed health care the government may provide care itself such as the United Kingdom or they may contact other providers to do so ex: Germany and Japan or in the United States

I am writing to express my interest in the PhD scholarship in Health Economics at Monash University which was advertised in seek career website on 14th September 2017.