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Robert answered on
Dec 24 2021
HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
Public versus Private health care in Canada
Student’s name
Name of the Institute
HEALTH ADMINISTRATION 2
Contents
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................. 3
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4
Founding principles of Medicare ........................................................................................ 4
Universality ........................................................................................................................ 5
Accessibility ....................................................................................................................... 5
Comprehensiveness............................................................................................................ 5
Portability ........................................................................................................................... 6
Public administration ......................................................................................................... 6
Canada health act, 1984 ...................................................................................................... 6
Health care expenditure ...................................................................................................... 7
Health care providers .......................................................................................................... 8
Health care plans and insurance companies ................................................................... 10
Private Health care ............................................................................................................ 11
The question of sustainability ........................................................................................... 12
An aging population ........................................................................................................... 13
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 14
References ........................................................................................................................... 16
Appendix A ......................................................................................................................... 19
Appendix B ......................................................................................................................... 19
Appendix C ......................................................................................................................... 20
Appendix D ......................................................................................................................... 20
Appendix E ......................................................................................................................... 21
HEALTH ADMINISTRATION 3
Executive Summary
Canadian health care system is privately provided and publicly funded. It aims at reaching all
people and provides quality health care for people. It is based on the founding principles of
universality, accessibility, comprehensiveness, portability and public administration. As a
matter of fact, Canada is one of the countries that have very high spending on health.
Canadian health care system is based in equity and aims at reaching people without any
consideration to their socio-economic class or any other distinction.
Public health care systems often suffer from problems like long waiting periods and allegedly
poor quality health care. It also doesn’t cover many other needs like dental care, vision and
psychiatric care. To take advantage of the weaknesses in the public health system, many for-
profit hospitals are increasingly expanding their services. Supporters argues that it would
improve the overall quality of health care by
inging in competition, reduce the waiting
periods before getting treatment and is thus in overall public interest.
Sustainability is often cited as one of the reasons why there is an increasing demand for
private health care provision as Canada is spending huge amount on public’s health.
Both public and private health care system have their positive and negatives. There are
supporters and critics for both the arguments. However it can’t be denied that today,
Canadian people want access to private health care provision, they want a choice for private
health care if they aren’t satisfied with the public health care or because of the long waiting
periods. However the most important point is that Canadian government and laws should
consider any policy changes by keeping in mind the best interests of people and sustainability
of cu
ent health care system.
HEALTH ADMINISTRATION 4
Introduction
Canadian health care system is known as “Medicare”. The Canadian health care system is
ased on the premise that all insured people, that is, the people within the province should be
provided necessary health care on the basis of requirement and on the ability to pay for the
health care services (Irvine, 2011). The Canadian health care system is a mix of public and
private systems; the health care services are privately run but funded by the government.
However, today private sector also plays a secondary role in health care financing.
There is no national health care plan in Canada; rather Canada’s health care is based on
thirteen provinces, each province has its own health care plan. There are some common
features in these health care plans, each province have different hospital wait times etcetera.
However if a person moves from one te
itory to another; he/she is still covered under the
health care plan (Church, 1998).
Thus Canadian health care is publicly funded, privately run, universal, affordable,
comprehensive, and single payer health care system (Bernard, 1992). Publicly funded health
care system means that it is funded through government’s revenues, that is, taxes (Naylor,
1999). The health care plans in different provinces are required to be fully portable within the
country. Universal health care means that the plan should cover no less than ninety five
percent of the eligible recipients within a province. The health care system in each province
is governed by a single public agency. Majority of the doctor community involved in private
practice charge for their services; however the fee is negotiated by the doctors’ community
and the provincial health care agency. Most of the hospitals in Canada are private and not for
profit. They receive their budgets from the government of the province (Bernard, 1992).
Founding principles of Medicare
These are the founding principles of Medicare in Canada.
HEALTH ADMINISTRATION 5
Universality
It can’t be denied that poorer people often don’t have access to necessary health care. High-
income people use health care facilities more than lower-income ones in spite of the fact that
illness rates are much higher in the lower income
acket of population (Canadian Medical
Association, 2010). Canadian health care system aims at providing health care to its citizens
who are essential for health and quality of life.
Accessibility
Canadian health care system aims at making health care accessible to all eligible recipients.
However, Canadian health care system suffers from long waiting periods and many a times,
people have to wait for months before necessary treatment (Canadian Medical Association,
2010).
Comprehensiveness
The provincial health care plans must insure all services that are medically necessary. People
of Canada are entitled to receive medically necessary health care. However, when Medicare
was established in 1960s, the health needs were primarily acute in nature. Today the health
needs are much evolved and include prevention and treatment of chronic diseases (Canadian
Medical Association, 2010).
However till date, psychiatric hospitals are not covered under Canada health act, 1984.
Dental, vision and other private health care goods are also not covered under the act. But
these formed 27.4% of the health spending in 2001-02 (Marchildon, 2004). Dentists,
psychiatrists, ophthalmologists, and all personnel dealing in these areas mostly work in the
private sector.
HEALTH ADMINISTRATION 6
Portability
Canadian health care system aims to provide health care coverage to people travelling out of
province. However it doesn’t cover health care which is non-urgent in nature. If people wish
to receive health care in another province or te
itory, they have to get necessary approval
(Canadian Medical Association, 2010).
Public administration
Health care administration is governed on a not for profit basis. Most of the physicians are on
contract, and services are privately delivered, though publicly funded. Canada is one of the
countries that spend highly on health...