Canada's Healthcare System: A Case Study

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The healthcare system in Canada has been heralded as one of the best in the world. It has been cited as a model for other countries grappling with spiraling healthcare costs, quality of care, and access to care (Evans and Roos 1999). Even politicians from the United States have looked to Canada’s system as a model for their own health care reform efforts. Canadians spend significantly less on healthcare than their neighbors to the south, the United States (Kliff 2012). However, Canada’s healthcare system is not perfect. Some might critique the long waiting periods for appointments or the limited resources readily available for citizens. Harsher critics of the Canadian healthcare system simply oppose state sponsored healthcare. Canada’s system might demonstrate some faults, but in a …show more content…

The United Nations defined the right to healthcare in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN 2017). Article twenty-five of the resolution specifically mentioned this in saying that, “Everyone has the right to...medical care and necessary social services.” With Canada being a signer of this resolution, they are morally obligated to protect the human rights laid out in the resolution and specifically the duty of providing healthcare to their citizens. While Canadian citizens have access to healthcare, it is important to note that roughly 400 million people worldwide lack access to basic health care and services (Cassela 2015). Thus, the 1948 United Nations resolution on human rights still holds importance today. On the other hand, more people have access to healthcare than ever before. Over 32 different countries worldwide provide their citizens with universal healthcare (NY Health 2011). Canada, being one of these countries with universal healthcare, has taken article twenty-five of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and implemented policy that works to protect the rights of its’

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