Does Canadas national health care system provide better patient satisfaction and access to health care than the United States

Does Canada’s national health care system provide better patient satisfaction and access to health care than the United States’ health care system?

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Introduction

In Canada, every individual has the access to medical care and discrimination is rare in the medical sector; discrimination based on an individual’s ability to pay, type of health insurance and socio economic status. Nonetheless, citizens in the country are faced with various restrictions on gaining access to better health care due to lack of hospital beds, shortage of health care providers, and longer waiting time to access a provider. Because of these challenges private health care is the best option for Canadians. Despite the inadequacies, the current literature states that only 40% of the Canadian population are unsatisfied with their health care and are not in favor of private health care compared to 54% of the United States population who support private health care stating that public medical care is unsatisfactory.

Despite the fact that the United States is the leading country in the world with respect to health care expenditure, more than 42 million Americans have not access to medical insurance. There are more individuals in America without insurance than the whole population of Canada, with others in the US underinsured. This means that vast population of Americans do not seek medical attention each year as they opted because they cannot afford to pay for the services from their “pockets”. The cost of medical treatment is the leading cause of America financial crisis. Over the years various plans have been proposed to change the health care system in the United States so that this problem can be solved. Some of these proposed changes include switching to private health care similar to the steps taken by Canada.

Background of study

The Canadian constitution, states that health care responsibilities rests with territorial and provincial governments. The system was developed by territorial and provincial authorities that have attained a national program composed of a series of interlocking health care plans which the Canadian government funds. Hospital services include inpatient care in the wards unless medical necessity warrants otherwise. Although the government has done its best in ensuring health care is provided in the best way possible, the best option was privatize public hospital in order to getter outstanding medical care for its vast population.

Purpose of study

The intention of this systematic review is to investigate whether Canadian private health care system yield a better patient satisfaction a well as the access to health care as compared to the United States’ health care systems. This will be undertaken by evaluating the data that compares access to health care and patient satisfaction among patients in United States and Canada. In this paper access to health will considered as having the ability to pay for health care or medical services, health insurance, the availability of hospital beds, and the availability of health care providers. On the contrary patient satisfaction means the perception of each countries adult’s population views over the quality of health care they obtained, the availability of the health facilities, and the cost of health care.

Statement of the problem

In order to ascertain the problem facing health care system in Canada and the United States, the knowledge regarding how the entire system is set is of much significance. Canada is a country with 10 provinces and 3 territories sparsely populated. The sparse nature of the population is they main cause of health care related problem in the country resulting to private health care as the best alternative that can reach the entire population. Generally, 60% of the Canadian health care expenses comes from public allocation placing it among the least publicly financed countries. Despite the fact that Canadian hospitals are known as public institutions they are privately owned by non-profit organizations. Thus, lacks socialized medicine as believed because of high number of privately owned hospitals.

Methodology

This study will be done by conducting a systematic literature review of books and articles found in well-known journal databases such as FirstSearch and PubMed. The key words used will include health care systems, Canada, patient satisfaction, and United States. Articles will be chosen on basis of peer-reviewed sources from trustworthy journals.

Research Question

How is private health care in Canada as compared to that of United States viewed by the citizens and other stakeholders? Good or bad?

What are the impacts if any of private health care in Canada as compared to that of United States

Research objective

To investigate if private health care in Canada akin United States of America is better trend.

To determine if any the impacts of private health care in Canada as compared to that of United States

Review of literature

Since the paper relies on systematic analysis of current literature, this section will briefly indicate the literal sections that the research will use in defining the real comparison of private health care system between Canada and United States.

Canada’s Health Care System

In order to understand the problems facing the health care systems in Canada and

the United States, one has to have knowledge regarding how each system is set up.

Canada is a federation of 10 provinces and 3 sparsely populated northern territories.2

Under the Canadian Constitution, the responsibility for health care rests with the

provincial and territorial governments.5 Their system is the result of sustained federal,

provincial, and territorial efforts that have achieved a national program based on a series

of interlocking health insurance plans toward which the Canadian federal government

contributes substantial payments.5 The provinces and territories must meet established

criteria to qualify for their full share of federal payments for health care services. The

established criteria include public administration on a non-profit basis,

comprehensiveness of coverage, universality of eligibility, portability between provinces,

and accessibility achieved by prepayment through taxation.

The United States’ Health Care System

American contemporary health care system is a sophisticated mix of private and public services and insurance. The citizens get health insurance and services from a variety of private and public sources. Most of them get health insurance and care from their workplaces and pay for a subsidized monthly premiums for these services. At old age, all Americans are eligible to apply for Medicare, which is quality public funded health insurance. Public assistance recipients in United States are allowed to apply to get more restricted health care insurance from Medicaid program which covers vision and dental needs.

Health Care System Costs

In 1992, the United States Accounting office estimated that the country health administration costs was approaching Canadian level as it could be able to cover the uninsured population. In 2007 a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, by Woolhandler et al considered that the administration cost included health benefit programs, practitioners’ offices, nursing homes costs, home care agencies expenses, and other hospital costs. The result of the study indicated that United States spends $678 more per capita on health care as compared to Canada. The study was credible since it used recent comprehensive data for its estimates of administrative costs.

Patient Satisfaction

The commonwealth Fund International shows that 40% of Canadians were not satisfied with their health care system compared to 50% of United States citizens. The Americans cited high cost and inadequate medical coverage as the main reasons for their unsatisfaction while the Canadians cited shortage of health care professional and lack of hospital beds. It is evident from literature that both the United States and Canada share a common problem based on their lack of patient’s satisfaction midst its health care system. Pocket payment is one of the key concerns affecting both countries. It is a financial problem for all citizens to pay for medical care from their pockets hence increasing the mortality rate in both countries over the last five years.

Access to Health Care

The literature reviews shows that both countries have shortcomings in their medical or health care systems, with each state having a different problem. In the United States, dilemma regarding medical care rotates around underinsured and low-income citizens, whereby health care insurance does not cater for the needed services and patients’ cannot afford to pay by their own. As a result the country opted to used generalized health care system to cater for all the citizens such as the Obama health care act. Whereas in Canada, the problem is centralized with health care categorization to the territorial and provincial government that failed to address the concerns of its citizens opting to privatize health care to non-profit organizations.

References

Deber RB. Health care reform: Lessons from Canada. American Journal of

Public Health. 2003 Jan; 93(1):20-24.

Kardos Bettie, Allen Anne. Healthy neighbors: Exploring the health care

systems of the Unites States and Canada. Journal of Post Anesthesia Nursing.

1993 Feb; 8(1): 48-51.

Devereaux P.J., et al. Payments for care at private for-profit and private not-for-

profit hospitals: a systematic review and meta-analysis. CMAJ. 2004 June;

170(12):1817-1824.

Woolhandler Steffie, Campbell Terry, Himmelstein David. Costs of health care

administration in the United States and Canada. The New England Journal of

Medicine. 2003 Aug; 349(8):768-76.

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Armstrong Pat, Armstrong Hugh, Fegan Claudia. Universal Healthcare: What the

United States can learn from the Canadian Experience. New York, New York:

The New Press, 1998.

Gray Gwen. Access to medical care under strain: New pressures in Canada and

Australia. Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law. 1998 Dec; 23(6):905-

947.

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