Reference no: EM133399904

Healthcare is a subject causing a lot of attention to debate intensively in any country around the world. The variety of choices are easy to understand when we compare the health system in the United States with other developed countries, especially the healthcare system in Canada. Due to the single-payer system in Canada (2011), their people pay healthcare through taxes and government control while the United State has a multiplicity of health plans with mainly a private system of financing and delivery (Singh, 2019, 15). In 2021, based on the Canadian Institute for Health information, each Canadian spends about $8,019 for health expenses (2022) compared to $12,792 each patient in the United State (Miller, 2021).

There are some similarities in the health system between the United States and Canada. For example, they are both ranked highly and in the top of 11 high income countries with long life expectancy (2021), even the Canadian life expectancy is slightly higher (2017). In both Canada and the United States, the government doesn't own hospitals or employ healthcare providers directly. The government provides "standards of participation through health policy and regulation" (Singh, 2019, 11).

In Canada, the government provides insurance for Canadian healthcare. Canadians pay for healthcare through taxes, thus, the higher earners pay more for healthcare than low earners do (2011).

By contrast, half of Americans pay private insurance through a combination of employer and employee payments. The Americans with low or no income can use government insurance through Medicaid while seniors have Medicare insurance. Many Americans struggle to carry health insurance because their incomes do not qualify for Medicaid, or the employers don't provide health insurance benefits.

The healthcare system in Canada showed better performance with a lower cost than in the United States (Schneider, 2021, exhibit 4). This makes healthcare insurance in Canada more affordable than in the United States (Schneider, 2021, exhibit 5). However, the data showed that patients in the United States get better communication than in Canada (2014).

There are some opposite and similar in the healthcare system between Canada and the United States. These cause many advantages and disadvantages in both systems. In general, both countries, however, are trying to evolve their own system toward a better way for the people in their own countries.