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Universal health care introduction
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The Canadian Health System: in Theory and Practice
The Canadian Constitution of 1867 divides Health Care powers between federal government and provisional states. The Department of Agriculture was in charge of the health responsibilities in Canada until 1919 when the department of health was established. So far as Health activities are concerned, the Government assumes the responsibility of regulating the grant of money to different health institutions including hospitals charities and also for refugees.
Since 1947, most states started extending healthcare to all Canadians including permanent residents. The Federal government passed the Medical Care law in 1966, which made it possible to pay back doctors for the services they rendered outside
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hospitals. In 1972, health care services became accessible to all people nationwide. The health care system was further strengthened in 1984, when the central government enacted the Canada Health Act which sets out rules and regulations for different health departments nationally and stipulates the main aims and objectives of Canada Health system .The Act also scrutinizes as well as directs the functioning of different health departments and guarantees the proper implementation of its principles. The federal government aspires to implement a health system that compatible with the Canadian principles and values as embodied in the constitution. Canada Health Care System-has underwent several changes and improvements since the last four decades and they will go on in response to developments in both medicine and society at large. The system is publicly funded and it is a combination of ten states and three territories health insurance plans. They collectively referred to as ‘Medicare”. The system offers essential medical physician and hospital services to all Canadians nationally. The federal Government plays an important role in Canada Health Care System through Canada Health Act which was passed in 1984.The federal government through the Act and with the help and collaboration of the Ten provinces and Three territories provide health care services to all Canadians, and specific groups i.e.
the First nations and Inuit. The federal government uses Canada Health Act as its primary tool to lay down health care principles and administer then nationwide and endeavors to implement them in accordance with Canadian Values and principles. The government is solely in charge of financing all health services in all its territories and provinces through fiscal transfers. The federal government is also in charge of disseminating other health –related services such as health programs intended to offer the public with precautionary measures with a prime aim of protecting them against any possible health hazards …show more content…
risks The federal government does not limit its health care activities to only medical sphere, but it also extends its mandate in the field of the health area to include human resources planning, adoption of new technologies in addition to providing health care by making it universal and accessible to all Canadians.
The Canadian health Care System is unique in its nature and utility. It endeavors to provide health services that other ones do not entail. Up until now a neighboring country, the US does not have a universal free health care system where its people had to buy their own Health Insurance individually or through their employers. While million others who are not full time workers do not have any kind of health coverage. Similarly, children, young, women and seniors are not liable to any kind of health services. Raisa Deber discussed the lessons that can be learnt from the Canadian Health Care System.
What is even worse is that when people who want to buy health insurance on their own or through their own employers are not allowed to do so if they had pre-existence cases. What does that mean: It simply means that anyone who already has a malignant disease such as cancer would not covered for that particular case if they would buy health insurance. The same criterion is applicable on a pregnant woman who would buy health insurance after they have already conceived. However most of those restrictions will be eliminated beginning next year when Obama Care will be put in
force. Medicare is the initial spot of contact for patients with the health care system. It encompasses all the medical services provided by physicians and hospitals, which include a wide variety of different health services. These services deal with common diseases and injuries, primary mental care, and even basic emergency treatments and child development. They also include referrals too more specialized medical services. Canadian Health System provides free and nationwide medical services. Every Canadian individual and permanent resident is automatically covered by the medical health plan. The federal government also provides health services to qualified veterans, refugee protection claimants and inmates of federal penitentiaries. There are numerous Family doctors’ clinics and walking clinics across the country. Each individual person or a family is eligible to get registered with a family doctor of their choice. Each person has a Care card with his or her name enlisted on it with a serial number. This card qualifies them to visit any Walking Clinic whether in their local residency or outside their physical current address. They can do that whether they have family doctors and registered with them or not. This means that Canadians can freely choose to visit walking clinics while they are already registered with their family doctors. Family doctors as well as walking clinics can refer their patients to specialists if they deem it necessary. All Canadians and permanent residents can see their family doctors or walking clinics free of charge whether they have extended health insurance plans or not. Similarly, they do not have to pay for all kinds of lab tests referred by their treating physicians. Low-income individuals do not even have to pay for any ultra sounds, MRI, sonograms or x-rays. Low Income families who receive income assistance and welfare are given extra medical and other health services. These services include hearing, vision ambulance costs and even dental care. Children until the age of 18 years have dental care including Orthodontics under the Healthy Kids Program. Medications are dispensed free of charge or with partial costs to low income people. Individuals with extended Medical Services Plan (MSP) are covered by their own health insurance companies for dispensing their medications. However, they still eligible for partial coverage to their drugs after reaching their premiums. Individuals are free to choose any pharmacy for dispensing their drugs. They can also switch from one pharmacy to another with no restrictions to do so. People can also transfer their prescriptions from one pharmacy to another if they chose to do so. There are certain types of drugs and Medicare does not cover Prescriptions. These may include dental care, vision care, medical equipments, and physiotherapy. These medical services do not fall within the medical jurisdiction of the Canada Health Act. In these cases Individuals are supposed to pay for these services at their own expenses. There are no limits on the medical visits whether to walking clinics, family doctors or hospitals for emergencies. Foreign national on short Visits to Canada are not covered by the health care system and they must by their own insurance plans during their stay in Canada. Medical visits for the non covered individuals are quite expensive and could cost between $100 -$150 for each and every simple medical visit and additional costs will be incurred on prescriptions and lab tests. Medical fees will become even costlier if those individuals had to go for emergencies in the hospitals. A mere emergency admittance could roughly cost $1000 excluding the treating physician fees and other medications. Canadian health system is well computerized and each person will have to present their Care Cards when going to doctors, hospitals or labs. And if the visiting persons do not bring their own care cards with them during any medical visit, all they have to do is to give their names to the receptionists who can identify their status on the computer immediately and let them to see a doctor. Similarly Canadians can go to any lab to do their medical tests based on the lab sheet referred by there treating physicians. Lab results usually are sent to the referring doctors and always a copy will be sent to the family doctors even when they were seen by a walking clinic. Doctors have different payment schemes depending on the type of each service. Group practices where many physicians share the same practice can have different payment schemes. They are paid either on salary basis or on a combination of fee for the service they render plus incentives for certain medical services. On other hand, doctors in private practice are paid through fee-for-service bases. Home care services are not covered by the Canada Health Act, however, the states pay for certain services rendered to them. The federal government runs some of the services related to veterans and First Nations people and Inuit. Canadian Health system is transparent and responsive to Canadian ideals and values as set out by the constitution. Canada Medicare is characterized as being open and transparent. The federal government allowing Canadians to access Canada Health database and its information its related services. The government is aiming at making relevant and other related health issues available to the public. It is in the opinion that this kind of transparency will at the end support Canadians in making the right choices when it comes to health services. An article by lewis, steven et al. “ The Future of Health Care in Canada” illustrates the crossroads between the Canadian Health care system and the Medicare of USA. The American government also strives to make Medicare enjoys a wider scope of openness. This objective is maintained by allowing Canadians share information on government’s health related regulations and rules set out by the federal government. The latter issue is very important as it enables Canadians to be well aware on the safety of the food products they buy and use daily. Health Canada is obliged to update its information on the nature of the food and other health related products momentarily and to keep the public well informed of any changes that may take place in its rules or publications it made earlier on food safety. The health system gives immense consideration to mutual commitments and a vigorous drive to public sector. It is widely monitored by the federal government who tries to see that it is working in accordance with the rules and regulations set out for it with the aim of benefiting Canadians from all walks of life regardless of their class or financial backgrounds. The federal and provincial governments want to see the health care system is carried out on non-profit grounds. The health authorities at both federal and local levels exert a lot of efforts in order to ensure that health department nationally is rendering their health services properly and that there is no breach to the health procedures. The federal government also keeps an eye on the pharmaceuticals, medical services, consumer safety and validity of food products. The Federal Government in collaboration with the health departments scrutinize the dangers of the easily transmitted diseases and take all possible measures to prevent its spread and combat its existence. It is the federal government not Health Canada provides funding to the ten states and three territories for health care services through fiscal transfers. It provides funding through cash and tax transfer to them in order to enable all states pay for health care services. However, the actual provision of health services is mainly a provincial/territorial responsibility. Canadian Federal Government tries to maintain high standard of health to its people. And it spends a lot of money in the health sector .In 2014 it is expected that total governmental spending on health to reach 214. 9 billion, which amounts to 11% of its domestic product (GDP). Canada is among the top Countries in terms of per person spending on health care totaling to on the average to $6,045. However, this figure varies from one province to another. It is for instance expected to be highest in Newfoundland and Labrador ($6,953) and Alberta ($6,783) and lowest in Quebec ($5,616) and British Columbia ($5,865). Health care spending rose at an average of 7% per year from 2000 to 2010 and is expected to increase by 2.1% in 2014 year. The governmental health care spending mostly is allocated to hospital, drugs and physicians. Spending on hospitals represents the single biggest class of health spending, followed by drugs and physicians. However, increase in physician costs has surpassed that for hospitals or drugs since 2007. Generally, the money spent an all of these three sectors has been dawdling over the Last four years. Aging population is not the main reason for the increase in health care costs. For instance the average of health care money spent on seniors has not changed considerably over the past decade. Canada Health care system has been subjected to a criticism regarding its waiting period, which patients had to undergo before they can see a physician or when they are required to see a specialist physician. The Wait Time Alliance released a report indicating that countries with universal health-care systems have quicker procedures than Canada when people had to get into hospital emergency rooms. This means that Canadians had to wait longer in hospital emergency Rooms (ER) contrary to other countries which have national health Care systems whose people can faster get into hospital emergency rooms. The wait Times Alliance annual report card said that 27 percent of Canadians had to wait few more hours in emergency wards compared with one percent in Holland and five per cent the U.K. The Alliance also noted that about 4.4 million Canadians do not have a family physician; however, Manitoba and British Columbia (BC) have more ratios of physicians per a person, meaning that they have taken the lead in this direction. There are certain medical areas which really have strict waiting period time and the Federal government in 2004 decided to focus on them in order to accelerate the admitting procedures. These areas include: Coronary artery bypasses surgery. Cataract removal. Hip and knee joint replacements. Diagnostic imaging — MRI/CT. Cancer radiation therapy. New technology have been introduced in medical health system such as electronic devices, and digitalized records which contributed in improving the quality of the health care and ultimately shortened the waiting periods. Simultaneously, These innovations have enabled Canadians to visit different health centers in a more transparent and lees time consuming way.
Though, Professor Armstrong makes very good connections between health care policy reforms and its impact on women, all of these connections are eclipsed by the values encompassed within the Canada Health Act of 1984. Health care to this day is provided on the basis of need rather than financial means, and is accessible to all that require it. Professor Armstrong’s argument is hinged upon the scope of services provided under the public health insurance system, and the subsequent affect of these reforms on women as the main beneficiaries of these services and as workers in these industries. However, these reforms were made to balance the economy, and the downsizing and cutbacks were necessary steps to be taken with respect to this agenda. Moreover, as aforementioned the access to medical services ultimately comes down to need, and the reforms to date are not conducive to an intentional subordination of female interests in the realm of health care. Therefore, I find Professor Armstrong’s critique on Canada’s public health insurance system to be relatively redundant because the universal access to care encompassed within the Canada Health Act transcends the conditional proponents of her arguments of inequality. In other words, I believe she is
Neighboring countries, United States and Canada have close ties to one another, share the same language and have many of the same fundamental and religious beliefs. It is an interesting debt as to which provides a superior healthcare system. In order to better understand the strengths and weakness of the two systems, this paper will review four important structural and functional elements of each system.
It is an assumption by many that Canada has one of the best healthcare systems in the world. But do they really? There are numerous health services in Canada which should be part of the universal care nonetheless are not. These include but are not limited to: dental care, vision care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and prescription drug coverage. This report will solely focus on why basic dental care should be a part of the Canadian universal healthcare. Dental care is predominantly delivered in the private sector on a fee-for-service basis, with approximately 62.6% of Canadians paying for care through employment-based insurance and 31.9% through out-of-pocket expenditures and only a small amount of the Canadians, 5.5%, are qualified for public funding through government assistance programmes (Ramraj and Quinonez, 2012). It was seen that by 2009, dental coverage affordability became a problem not just for the low income families but also impacted middle-income earners as a result of their lack of, or decreased access to comprehensive dental insurance (Ramraj, 2013). It is stated by the World Health Organization that universal health care coverage should reassure access to necessary care and protect patients from financial hardship, and that the governments are obligated to
At the beginning of the 20th century healthcare was a necessity in Canada, but it was not easy to afford. When Medicare was introduced, Canadians were thrilled to know that their tax dollars were going to benefit them in the future. The introduction of Medicare made it easier for Canadians to afford healthcare. Medicare helped define Canada as an equal country, with equal rights, services and respect for every Canadian citizen. Medicare helped less wealthy Canadians afford proper healthcare. Canadian citizens who had suffered from illness because they could not afford healthcare, were able to get proper treatment. The hospitals of Canada were no longer compared by their patients’ wealth, but by their amount of service and commitment. Many doctors tried to stop the Medicare act, but the government and citizens outvoted them and the act was passed. The doctors were then forced to treat patients in order of illness and not by the amount of money they had. Medicare’s powerful impact on Canadian society was recognized globally and put into effect in other nations all around the world. Equality then became a definition which every Canadian citizen understood.
Many policies have shaped Canadian healthcare. In 1962, Saskatchewan enacted the Medical Care Insurance Act (MCIA). The MCIA provided coverage in the province for services provided by physicians. Physicians were allowed to bill the patient for any amount over what the government would pay. Other provinces began considered similar programs. In 1966, the federal government passed the Medical Care Act. Under this act physician services were covered under programs administered at the provincial level. The fees were split at a 50% rate between the federal and provincial governments. Another act, known as the Hospital Act allowed the provinces to develop their own health plans. Some provinces took a more inflexible approach to billing. After these acts were implemente...
In the past, Canada’s government-funded, universally accessible, health care system has been praised and admired both at home and abroad as one of the finest in the world. A great source of pride and comfort for many Canadians is that it is based on five fundamental principles. Principles that are a reflection of the values held by Canadian citizens since the formation of Medicare in 1966. These principles were reinforced in the Canada Health Act, (CHA), of 1984 and state that the Canadian system is universal, accessible, portable, comprehensive and non-profit.
Canada’s Health Care system is gradually growing to be a major concern in today’s society with providing Canadians with the standard of care they deserve. Health care has become an issue because of the shortage of doctors in Canada; many of them are either going to the U.S.A. or going to other countries to practice in hospitals and clinics. The earning cap imposed by the government has forced doctors to work fewer hours than are necessary to serve the public. Many Canadians are without a doctor to help them with their needs and emergency rooms are filled to capacity with no available beds for those who have to be admitted to the hospital. Waiting time for specialist and specialty tests have become so long that someone diagnosed with a major illness may die before they can be properly treated. Nurses and others in the medical field are overworked and understaffed because the government has made cut-backs to the Health Care System. We live in a country where our health care is a privilege to have, but getting ill is becoming a problem if there is not adequate facilities and professionals to care for the sick. Today’s society is aging longer than ever and will need health care longer than before; patients recovering from hospital stays are being sent home more quickly than ever before, and terminal patients are being sent home for their last days.
The introductory of Canada’s health care system in the mid-20th century, known as Medicare, led the country into the proud tradition of a public health care system, opposite to America’s privatized health care system in the south. Though Canada’s health care system still holds some aspects of a privatized system, it is still readily available for all citizens throughout the nation. After continuous research, it is clear to state that public health care and the association it has with welfare state liberalism is by far a more favourable option for Canada, than that of private health care and the association it has with neo-conservatism. To help understand why public health care is a better and more favourable option for Canada, it is fundamental
“Health is the state of complete physical, mental, social and intellectual well-beings not merely an absence of disease”(WHO,1998).Good health is essential in life as people’s career will be affected if they fall ill.. In the developed countries like Australia, People who are not involved in the healthy lifestyle are suffering from a range of health disorders like overweight, high blood pressure, obese, heart diseases, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, kidney problems, liver disorders and so many. To overcome these health issues Australian government introduced health care system. This essay will firstly, discuss the Australian health care system and secondly, compare Australia with other countries around the world in relation to different consideration on health.
Pierre, N., Pollack, N., & Fafard, P. (2007). Health Policies and Trends for Selected Target Groups in Canada.
In Conclusion, the health care systems in both countries have their strong points as well as their weaknesses but I would still much rather have our own health care system. I hope these facts about the different systems will help you better understand them.
Intercept Pharma Canada files New Drug Submission to Health Canada for Marketing Approval of Obeticholic Acid for the Treatment of Patients with Primary Biliary Cholangitis Obeticholic Acid represents first new treatment option for Primary Biliary Cholangitis in 20 years NEW YORK, NY, September 15, 2016 – Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ICPT), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics to treat non-viral, progressive liver diseases, today announced the filing of a New Drug Submission to Health Canada, seeking Canadian marketing approval for obeticholic acid (OCA) for the treatment of primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), when used in combination with ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA)
Universal health care is provided by the government of the country where the system is used . Many countries use this type of health system , including Canada , the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Some of universal health care systems provide completely free health care for its citizens , while others require citizens to buy health insurance from a list of insurance providers . some countries subsidize ow income families.
To be truthfully honest I believe health care is not a must because we don’t necessary need health care we can change our diet ourselves and eat home cook meals. We can even grow our own crops and use natural herbs and homemade remedies to get rid of a cold or flu. Especially the non-Canadian citizens they should continue with their way of healthy eating and keep certain traditions with in their new homes in order to avoid serious or mild sickness. Health care services will always be there in help but staying natural as possible is the best way to live.
Americans are fed up with the healthcare system. They 're done with the exorbitant costs, copays, late fees, and after all of that, the lack of coverage. Like a child that has failed a test America looks to the people next to us for the answers. Canada has a free healthcare system, and we think the grass is greener on the other side. Many politicians have been using this as their advantages to get people to rally behind them. But, people need to look at the big picture. Free healthcare does the opposite of what it was proposed to do; free healthcare actually costs more because taxes and hospital visits increase, quality of healthcare and the number of medical professionals decreases.