In the US, healthcare has always been a controversial issue. On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into effect the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. This law the President signed puts into place comprehensive healthcare reforms that will affect the next 4 years and beyond. Some of the large reforms that will happen are benefits for women, strengthening Medicare, holding more insurance companies accountable, and young adult coverage. Women will be benefited from the Affordable Care Act by having preventive services covered and having more insurance options. Young adults will benefit from the Affordable Care act because coverage will be available for children up to 26 years of age.
By far, the largest thing that goes into effect started this year, which states that every American will have access to affordable healthcare insurance options. The Act ensures that low income and middle-income families get tax credits that cover most of their insurance coverage cost. Also, more low- income people will receive Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. By establishing these reforms, specifically the later one, millions of people who were not insured previously will be receiving healthcare.
The health Insurance Marketplace was created for people to be able to compare their different health plans, see if they receive tax credits pertaining to the Affordable Care Act and private institutions. Healthcare in the United States is spread out over distinct organizations. Most of the health care facilities are owned from the private sector businesses. The US life expectancy is 78.4 years. The US has one of the highest infant mortality in the world. The US Census reported that 49.9 million residents, 16.3% of the population were not insured in 2010. The cost of treating the uninsured has/had to be observed as charity care, covered through
Some other big changes from the Affordable Care Act are it ends arbitrary withdrawals of insurance coverage, which means your insurance company cannot cancel your coverage just because you made an honest mistake. This Act also allows the patient to choose any doctor they want to see from their plan’s network and certain people are eligible to receive preventive health care with no copayments.
US healthcare costs in 2011 were 387.3 billion. Around 84.8 % of Americans have some form of healthcare. Obama care is very controversial and raises interest in the quality of healthcare. There are issues concerning the quality of health care due to the shortage of nurses worldwide. Older nurses will have to be replaced. HIT health information systems jobs are going to be prominent. Nursing jobs will produce a huge percentage of jobs in the economy.
When most people think of Canada they associate many similarities with the US. But it is not well known that Canada has universal healthcare. Healthcare in Canada is delivered through a publicly funded system. Canada has guidelines that were created in the provisions of Canada Act of 1984. This provision essentially states that Canada will provide each citizen with quality care that is provided by the Canadian government. This system is a group of socialized health insurance plans that has guidelines provided by the federal government and is dispensed based upon which providence or territory the person lives in.
According to this healthcare system each person in Canada has access to medical treatments from doctors, hospitals, and even additional services. Canada has very few exceptions to giving residents access to healthcare regardless of income, medical history, or living standard. Canada’s healthcare system, much like the US is open to many debates and scrutiny. It is said that Canadian healthcare is not well organized to give on-time treatments. It is a big concern for certain people that privatizing Canadian healthcare would only give access to care to the wealthy and leave out the poor.
In spite of these various issues, Canadians have one of the highest life expectancies in the world, roughly 80 years old and the lowest infant mortality rate in any industrial nation. These facts seem to prove that whatever Canada is doing in terms of healthcare, they are obviously doing something very right.
In Canada’s Health Provision Act of 1984 there are five main principles outlined. The five principles are Public Administration, Universality, Comprehensiveness, Portability, and Accessibility. Public Administration says that administration of health insurance, by providence must be carried out by a non-profit or public authority. Comprehensiveness says that all necessary health care services must be insured such as hospital visits, dentists, etc. Universality says that all residents who are insured are entitled to the same level of health care, equal healthcare. Portability, which states that even if a resident moves to another providence in Canada they can still receive healthcare coverage from their home providence during the waiting period. This stipulate is also used for residents who move to another country. Accessibility states that everyone that is insured has access to health care facilities and all doctors and hospitals must be receiving compensation that is reasonable for the services that they provide.
The government as a whole does not handle the individual healthcare. Each providence in Canada is responsible for the persons within their providence. When a person is approved for healthcare they are issued a card that provides coverage in healthcare for their respective providence. New residents usually have waiting periods before the healthcare insurance is granted. But this time cannot be longer than 3 months according to the Canada Healthcare Act.
Once the healthcare card is issued it is used every time the resident visits the physician or hospital. This health card contains a number identification; this number then is used to retrieve the resident’s medical history. The resident then needs to choose their primary care doctor. “Usually there is one primary care doctor for every one thousand Canadian residents” (candian-healthcare.org). When the resident visits the office, there is normally no need for filling out of additional paperwork or fees. Which is so very different from the US. The general coverage of healthcare in Canadian providences is the same but certain providences require citizens to have more than others. For example, British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario require that residents have healthcare premiums for services but the Canada Healthcare Act clearly states that health care insurance cannot be denied based upon the residents lack of finances to pay for premiums. Also, some Providences provide more care under insurance than others. In some providences, dental care and prescription medications are included in the insurance coverage. The option for more coverage is under the discretion of each providence.
Canada also has private healthcare which has additional services offered on top of the publicly funded services given to every resident. Most times, private services are provided through the resident’s employment. Incentives, or perks of using private healthcare in Canada include vision and dental care. One of the largest reasons people chose private healthcare over public healthcare because they have certain needs like home health care, or glasses/ contacts that are needed specific to them. By purchasing a private healthcare plan, their medical costs are offset by having private insurance. But regardless of this most Canadians as a whole chose to take advantage of their universal, public healthcare system.
Primary care physicians are basically the face of Canadian healthcare. “There are well over 30,000 primary care doctors in Canada and they make up about half of all physicians in Canada. The primary care doctors provide residents with basic medical and preventive care. Most people will see their primary care doctors first and they will then be referred to specialists, and specialists make up about 28,000 doctors in Canada” (Canadian-healthcare.org).
Most people will also go to a hospital when they need care such as an MRI or treatment. But Canada also has privately funded clinics. These are not as popular but still pretty well existent. Privately funded clinics under law are not allowed to offer services that are covered in the Canada Health Act. But very commonly, a lot of the clinics do provide services covered under the Health care act. Private health care clinics are controversial because it is felt they provide better and more favorable care to the wealthy and it creates unbalance in the healthcare system.
Lastly, the issue of how Canada pays for their healthcare system. Most of the healthcare is paid for through taxation. The taxation is from corporations and from residents (personal) taxes. Also, lottery profits and sales tax are also used to pay for public healthcare.
One thing that the US could do that Canada does is to find a way where all Americans are funded no stipulation like they are in Canada. The US is making strides and progression to allowing All, as in every single American having healthcare. We should move away from straight privately owned sectors. In the U, primary care doctors are not as common as they are in Canada. Changes should be made to make them a more prevalent healthcare provider. In the US we see nurses a lot more than primary care doctors. Overall, no healthcare system is perfect. But Canada has a pretty good system and it has been very effective since it began, reformed in 1984. The US is behind, because we just started reforming and allowing more and more Americans to have the opportunity to have healthcare.