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Canada Health Care Essay

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Canada’s national health insurance program (NHI) was set up under the Medical Care Act of 1966 and is referred to as Medicare. The Canadian system covers residents through public funding with spending decisions made at thirteen province levels. (Health Canada 2014) Services covered include all medically necessary and hospital physician services however each province has the option of whether to cover supplementary coverage for services such as prescription drug coverage, vision care, dental care, home care, aids to independent living, and ambulance services. To bridge this gap, about two-thirds of Canadians carry private insurance. (Watson 2009) The Canadian government has insurance programs for First Nations and Inuit. (Health Canada 2006) …show more content…

In 2010, the total waiting time was 18.2 weeks between referral from a primary doctor to delivery of treatment. Patients awaiting orthopedic surgery had the longest wait time of 35.6 weeks. (Shi 2015) Patients cannot pay privately for covered medical services to speed up the process as it is against Canadian law. (Hunter 2005) A famous case involved George Zeliotis who suffered excruciating hip pain. He was not allowed to pay for his operation privately. A complaint was brought to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2005 which concluded in Zeliotis’ favor that "Access to a waiting list is not access to health care.” (Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General), [2005] 1 SCR 791, 2005 SCC 35 (CanLII) 2005) Health insurance is not free in Canada and can cost up to $11,000 for families. Canadians pay indirectly through taxation for their “free” health insurance. Costs are increasing faster than the average income. (Leung 2014) Despite popular belief, not all Canadian enjoy the same levels of health services. Some regions such as Alberta and Saskatchewan are able to invest more per capita than other provinces. (Lindenberg 2012) Overall the Canadian health system is costly and while the model works in theory, the reality is that the system does not work

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