The United States and Canada had similar healthcare system in the past before the period when Canada changed its system in 1960s and 1970s. The U.S currently spends much more on healthcare compared to Canada. By getting the comparison between The U.S healthcare system and the Canadian system, there must be an understanding in the manner in which both systems work. Individuals in both countries pay for their health insurance. The difference in healthcare insurance is seen in the manner in which the insurance gets funded.
Citizens in the U.S pay for their own health care insurance (Leyerle, 2016) . However, individuals qualify for insurance coverage in one of the covers provided by the government depending on their age and disability issues. Such programs include Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans Health Administration. Most of the healthcare covers are tied to employment where the employers provide insurance cover for their employees. The coverage is however not mandatory and it varies from one employer to another. In Canada, the government funds for healthcare insurance which covers all Canadian citizens in all sectors of the country’s healthcare system.
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When it comes to the position that the private industry and competition has in healthcare, the private organizations are the major providers of both healthcare services and insurance in the U.S. Insurance companies compete for clients and sell their packages to employers for such packages to benefit the employees. Such organizations also sell insurance policies to individual citizens. Insured citizens are however still limited on the medical services that they can access using their covers. The healthcare system in Canada is different in that most healthcare services are offered by private healthcare providers and not by the government organizations. Doctors therefore do not depend on individuals who have private insurance but instead, they get their finds from the government health insurance.
The type of healthcare covered by health insurance differs in the two countries. This is because of how the insurances are funded which brings a difference in how individuals in both countries access healthcare services. In the U.S, healthcare services provided through the private insurance differs depending on the kind of benefit packages that the employers negotiate for or the kind of insurance that individual citizens opt for. In Canada, the universal insurance provides cover for all citizens which provide unlimited coverage for individuals (Cotlear, 2015). The provinces are also expected to provide any additional coverage such as coverage for prescription, home care, and long term care among others.
The manner in which primary health care is delivered in the U.S and Canada differ as much as primary care plays a significant role. Both countries are faced with a shortage of primary healthcare providers. In the U.S, approximately one-third of doctors account for primary care services for all doctors. They do not have the option to provide referrals and patients choose their doctors depending on their healthcare insurer. Some patients who are fully covered are often forced to get their own funding for some medical procedures. In Canada, close to half of the physicians provide primary care and can give patients referrals to specialists if needed. Patients choose by themselves their primary care doctors. No patient can pay directly for any service offered as long as the healthcare services are covered under the universal healthcare plan.
However, both countries have some similarities in their healthcare system. For instance, consumer protection is a uniform factor in both countries. The healthcare system in both countries works towards the protection of competition in the healthcare industry with the fact that competition is the major factor that enhances innovation and ensures quality health care to individuals. Both countries have government agencies which enhance a balance between the protection of consumers and innovation of the healthcare industry through competition.
References
Cotlear, D., Nagpal, S., Smith, O., Tandon, A., & Cortez, R. (2015). Going universal: how 24 developing countries are implementing universal health coverage from the bottom up . The World Bank.
Leyerle, B. (2016). The private regulation of American health care . New York: Routledge.
