Blog 6: Canada Health/Disease

Emily Crigger

Healthcare in Canada

 

     Journalist Sarah Kliff shared insight into the Canadian healthcare system in her July 1, 2012 Washington Post article “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Canadian Health Care in One Post”.  In the article, Kliff takes the reader through the strengths and the weaknesses of Canada’s healthcare system, and how well the publicly- financed system works.

     Canada as a nation consists of 10 provinces and three territories. Each of these finance and manage a statewide health insurance program.  Canada’s healthcare system is built around the principle that all citizens will receive all medically necessary hospital and physician services.  These services, which are guaranteed under federal law in Canada, are given at no cost to the patient. There is no cost-sharing. 

     While access to hospital and physician services is guaranteed, each province and territory gets to decide what, if any, supplementary benefits are covered. Supplementary benefits cover such things as dental care, orthodontic care, and prescription drugs. In Canada, 66% of the citizens choose to take out private, supplemental insurance policies to cover these services, or their employers sponsor a plan to cover them for these services.

Canadian legislators have tried to expand the services the public health care system will cover to also include dental, orthodontics, and prescription drugs, but these efforts have bee unsuccessful.  Because most of the doctors in Canada are not government employees, they negotiate their payment at a fee-for-service rate.  Fee-for-service allows a doctor to bill for each individual service provided during an office visit or hospitalization.

    Canada spent 11.4 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care in 2009. In comparison, the United States spent 17.4 percent of its GDP on health care in the same year. The following countries spent between 11.5 and 12 percent of their GDP in 2009 on healthcare and fall between what Canada and the United States spent: Denmark, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. There are two reasons Canada spends so much less of its GDP on healthcare than the United States. First, the “unit cost” of health care is less in Canada when compared to the United States.  Kliff uses the example of the cost of an MRI in Canada ($824) and the United States ($1,200) as an example of Canada’s less expensive unit cost of health care.  Second, the administrative costs of health care in Canada are much lower than in the United States.  For example, in 2010 Canadian doctors in the province of Ontario spent $22,205 in dispute with the Canadian government over payment for services. In that same year, American doctors spent

$82, 975 dealing with private insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid in order to get reimbursed for services.

     Canadians are generally pleased with their health care system. Kliff points out that it has been noted that Canada’s survival rates for breast and colorectal cancer are high, and its strong primary care programs prevent costly hospital admissions. Kliff also cites a 2011 Gallup poll that reveals 57 percent of Canadians are satisfied or very satisfied with their access to health care, as compared to Americans who are only 25 percent satisfied or very satisfied with theirs.  However, Canadians are not generally pleased with the long wait times encountered to see a doctor -particularly a specialist- or to schedule elective surgery. To address this problem, Canada has required each province to set standards for wait times to see specialists and obtain procedures.

     Canadians are very proud of their healthcare system and consider it part of their national identity.  Kliff notes a study that concluded that 85 percent of Canadians believe that if the public plan for healthcare was eliminated, it would “result in a fundamental change to the nature of Canada. “ However, a large percentage of Canadians do feel that the government should increase health care spending to help reduce long wait times and further improve access to care.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/07/01/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-canadian-health-care-in-one-post/

Emily Crigger
3/7/12
8:50PM