In your responses to peers, consider discussing how your healthcare career relates to theirs. Then, going beyond the introduction, compare the countries you discussed in terms of access and delivery.
Hello everyone,
I am a care coordinator at a hospital in NYC. I’ve been in the medical field for ten plus years. I really enjoy my job as I work with a great team of nurses who go above and beyond for our patients. Working in my field diversity is something that we always discuss as we treat patients from many different backgrounds. Not only are the patients from different backgrounds but also the employees in the organization. I am interested in learning all about the different health systems and how they work.
The two countries healthcare systems I will discuss are Canada and the United States. The Canadian government has a health insurance strategy that covers the entire population. The national health insurance is funded by general taxes through single-payer systems. This system entails that the third-party payers have the responsibility of paying the medical services achieved. The nation's medical care system is termed as Medicare; this system is different from that of the United States because the United States Medicare system focuses on the elderly. Canada being close to the United States border proves to be the best contrast nation (Martin, 2018).
The Canadian Medicare system evolved in the 1940s when the Canadian provinces enrolled in compulsory medical insurance. Hospitals were built by the end of the Second World War in Saskatchewan a province in Canada, thus fostering the mandatory health insurance system. The plan intended to create regional hospital systems where primal care occurred in the local hospitals while the complex services were handled by the district hospitals. Base hospitals, on the other hand, dealt with severe cases. By 1961 majority of the 10 provinces had already had their medical care insurance and the national government catered for half the amount. The Canadian system focused more on private funding while that in the United States focused on private funding. The healthcare act of 1984 laid ground for the current care system; the act depicts how the health plan is to be carried out however one has to note that the federal system does not cover all the expenses. This results in Canadians supplementing the deficiency with personal insurances. The ministry, as well as the provincial medical association, determines the physician fees.
The United States focuses more on private health insurance. This is made possible through purchasing health insurance from either nonprofit or commercial insurance firms. The majority of the insurances are employment-related though the group incentive as it proves to be way less costly than private insurance. Under this group initiative, employers take up the mantle of paying the insurance premiums for its members. However, these group insurances have a stop loss amount that protects the firms from spending over the specified amount. The United States also offers public insurance that covers around 26% of its citizens; this includes both Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare covers the elderly as well as disabled individuals. Medicare exists in two-part the first part covers mandatory services such as inpatient, minimal nursing home service and services at home (Ahuja, 2018). The second part, on the other hand, covers the voluntary services. Medicaid is known for providing privileges to economically disadvantaged individuals. Both the federal as well as state governments fund this program.
The united states programs stand out when compare to that of Canada mainly because US advocates for a multiplayer system where the federal, state and commercial insurance firms play the role of providing healthcare its citizens. When it comes to healthcare expenditure, the United States tops the list. America nationals feel that the insurance programs I Canada are way off better in terms of program popularity and effectiveness. The Canadian system has the upper hand when compared to that of the US on the merit that the program is cheaper, strong health status and has more services.
References
Ahuja, G. M. (2018). Price Transparency in the United States Healthcare System.
Martin, D., Miller, A. P., Quesnel-Vallée, A., Caron, N. R., Vissandjée, B., & Marchildon, G. P. (2018). Canada's universal health-care system: achieving its potential. The Lancet, 391(10131), 1718-1735.
