Canadian and American Healthcare Systems

Canadian and American Healthcare Systems

Canada is one of the most developed countries in the world and has a different model of health care from that of the United States. Canada uses a publicly funded healthcare system with 13 healthcare insurance plans across all provincial and territories. The insurance plan covers its 37.5 million population as of 2019 (Government of Canada, 2023). On the other hand, the United States uses a mixed public and private model of healthcare. The citizens may obtain insurance coverage from private insurance companies or public, government-subsidized health insurance like Veteran’s Affairs, Medicaid, and Medicare. In Canada, insurance coverage is financed by the public through taxation through a single-payer system (Government of Canada, 2023). The strengths and weaknesses of the Canadian healthcare model are discussed below.

First, the most noteworthy strength of Canada’s healthcare system is the universal coverage provision to all legal residents and citizens. In this type of coverage, everyone living legally in the country can access essential healthcare services regardless of their employment or income status (Government of Canada, 2023). This system is different in the United States, where millions of people are underinsured or uninsured due to the affordability of insurance coverage, which causes inequalities in access to care (Zieff et al., 2020).

Canada’s model of health care differs from the American model of costs. The healthcare system in Canada has lower administrative expenses than the complicated private United States healthcare system. Canada’s single-payer model helps eliminate the need for many insurance companies, administrative costs, and billing procedures that inflate healthcare spending (Government of Canada, 2023). Also, Canada’s healthcare system has more equal access than the United States. This equality is due to the fact that everyone is covered regardless of socioeconomic status. In the United States, different insurance coverage offers different coverage terms, creating inequity in healthcare access (Government of Canada, 2023).

Nonetheless, one of the weaknesses in the Canadian healthcare system is waiting times. Despite the vast investment in reducing excessive waiting time, Canadians must wait much longer to get healthcare services. Patients consider three months the maximum acceptable period to get a specialist appointment. Excessive wait times cause stress, pain, anxiety, loss of income, delayed treatment and diagnosis, test duplication, and patient health deterioration (Liddy et al., 2020).

In addition, the public funding of the Canadian healthcare system limits private healthcare insurance. Establishing private insurance coverage would relieve the strain on the public system and significantly reduce waiting times. Moreover, the public funding of the healthcare system may result in funding challenges. This may result from changing government budget allocations which affect the healthcare sector. Underfunding the healthcare system may cripple the improvement and maintenance of medical facilities, healthcare professional employment, and the use of new technologies (McAlister et al., 2018). Thus, these factors in the Canadian healthcare system cause inequality and limit access to healthcare. Also, insurance covers only primary care services, not special services and drugs. The high cost of drugs and dental services limits Canadians, who cannot raise money, and this leads to patients skipping routine dental care (McAlister et al., 2018).

In conclusion, the Canadian healthcare system is less complicated than the American system. Accordingly, this system has its strengths and weaknesses, as noted in the discussion above. The stakeholders involved in implementing the healthcare system should maximize their strengths while simultaneously developing reforms to address their weaknesses.

References

Government of Canada. (2023). Canada’s health care system. Canada.ca. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/canada-health-care-system.html

Liddy, C., Moroz, I., Affleck, E., Boulay, E., Cook, S., Crowe, L., Drimer, N., Ireland, L., Jarrett, P., MacDonald, S., McLellan, D., Mihan, A., Miraftab, N., Nabelsi, V., Russell, C., Singer, A., & Keely, E. (2020). How long are Canadians waiting to access specialty care? Canadian Family Physician, 66(6), 434–444. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7292524/#:~:text=The%20median%20national%20wait%20time

McAlister, F. A., Cram, P., & Bell, C. M. (2018). Comparing Canadian health care to that in other countries: looking beyond the headlines. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 190(8), E207–E208. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.171527

Zieff, G., Kerr, Z. Y., Moore, J. B., & Stoner, L. (2020). Universal healthcare in the United States of America: A healthy debate. Medicina, 56(11), 1–7. National Library of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.3390/

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Primary Discussion Response is due by Thursday (11:59:59pm Central), Peer Responses are due by Saturday (11:59:59pm Central).

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions with your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

No other country in the world has a health care system like that of the United States. For this Discussion Board assignment, complete the following:

Choose a developed country and discuss how its model of health care (e.g., national health insurance, national health system, or socialized health insurance) differs from that of the United States.
Discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses of that model in comparison to what is offered in the United States.
Responses to Other Students: Respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates with at least a 100–200-word reply about their Primary Task Response regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. To help you with your discussion, please consider the following questions:

What did you learn from your classmate’s posting?
What additional questions do you have after reading the posting?
What clarification do you need regarding the posting?
What differences or similarities do you see between your posting and other classmates’ postings?
For assistance with your assignment, please use your textbook and all course resources.

Discussion Board Rubric

Expectation Points Possible Points Earned Comments
Application of Learning Material Content: The initial post demonstrates an understanding of Learning Material content.
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