The Canadian Health Care

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The Canadian Health Care

The Canada Health Act (CHA) regulates the health sector in Canada. It stipulates the requirements that the health care facilities must met. These include insurance, public health, the safety standards and the drugs Act. The Canada Health Act is responsible for the overseeing that the citizens get access to quality and affordable health care services. It aims at ensuring that the residents have access to an insured health service (Matcha, 2003). This is an act of legislature and the principles defined in this Act covers the whole country and the federal states. The five basic principles of the Canadian healthcare system discussed below.

There is a vivid contrast between the US health care system and that of the Canadian system. The Canadian health care system sets the principle of administration that requires all provincial health insurance managed and run by the public authorities on a non-profit making process (Harrington, Estes, & Crawford, 2004). This public management ought to be transparent and must report to the provincial headquarters. Their accounts records are also subject to public scrutiny and audits. This system is different to the one in the United States that is majorly private system with very few public systems as in the case in Canada (McGibbon & Etowa, 2009). However, the two countries share cultural similarities that are likely to suggest that the US might adopt the system that the Canadians use.

Secondly, the principle of comprehensiveness requires that all health facilities to be insured. They include the hospitals, the dentists, and the physicians. Without insurance, these medics are not able to offer services in the territories of Canada. In addition, the principle of universality puts all citizens at the same level of health care service (Matcha, 2003). This is so since each person is insured. Therefore, the discrimination of patients based on race and social standings is absent in the Canadian system. Contrary to this, nearly in every five elderly in the US, one is uninsured. It is evident from this that the Canadian health care system is far better as compared to the United States system.

In addition, the principle of portability that is employed in the Canadian health care system that allow one who moves or migrates from his or her province to another province and still enjoy the same insurance benefits as in his or her home province (Matcha, 2003). However, this insurance coverage is only applicable to a short duration of time as he or she awaits another insurance cover. This principle applies even to those who travel outside the territories of Canada. Nonetheless, the health care system in the US does not provide for this inter-states travel health insurance cove (Harrington, Estes, & Crawford, 2004). The United States insurance cover is only applicable in the home state of the insured.

Finally yet importantly, the principle of accessibility gives all persons access to any health care facility. The doctors, nurses, physicians, hospitals, and all other medical facilities receive compensation for their services (McGibbon & Etowa, 2009). This allows the citizens easy access to any facility of choice. The opposite happens in the US. The US citizens do not have access to all the health facilities. In the United States, some facilities are private owned thus the public have limited access to them. The doctors and the other range of medical practitioners do not receive compensation from the government, either from the federal or from the state government.

In conclusion, it is evident that the health care system in Canada is better that the United States’ health care system. The Canadians have come up with five principles that they apply to ensure quality and safe health care for their country. Therefore, the US can borrow a leaf from the healthcare system that is the Canadians provide. This system is the best universally as it ensures that the health care provided is without discrimination and is the best.

References

Harrington, C., Estes, C. L., & Crawford, C. (2004). Health policy: Crisis and reform in the U.S. health care delivery system. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Matcha, D. A. (2003). Health care systems of the developed world: How the United States’ system remains an outlier. Westport, Conn: Praeger.McGibbon, E. A., & Etowa, J. B. (2009). Anti-racist health care practice. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.