Comparative Essay Sample: Health Care Systems in the United States and Canada

📌Category: Canada, Health, Health Care, Medicine, United States, World
📌Words: 851
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 17 April 2022

For millions of Americans, skipping a trip to the doctor in an effort to save money is a common practice. Citizens miss out on potentially life-saving care in order to avoid dreaded hospital bills. For a country that prides itself on freedom and liberty, its healthcare system deters many of its individuals from receiving necessary medical attention. North of the border, this problem is under control. Canadian citizens regularly visit medical professionals without the daunting fear of debt lingering in their minds. Although both nations possess very similar governmental and economic structures, the United States and Canada have vastly different implementations of their respective healthcare systems, with an emphasis on out-of-pocket costs.

Societal and cultural expectations are extremely influential when a sovereign nation makes its decisions. When people express their desires and necessities, the government intends to satisfy those expectations. In Canada, healthcare is a principal focus of its citizens. Washington Post author Amanda Coletta reveals this in a recent article titled “Canada's health-care system is a point of national pride. But a study shows it might be stalled.” She writes, “Canada's health-care system, known as Medicare, is an unrivaled pillar of Canadian national identity. Nearly 90 percent of Canadians believe that eliminating it would result in a fundamental change to the nature of Canada” (Coletta, par. 3) The Canadian healthcare system evidences that when citizens value their well-being, the government will provide them with excellent healthcare service. This statement may lead some to believe that American citizens do not prioritize their health. However, economic statistics prove otherwise. Healthcare in the United States is in fact prioritized; this can be demonstrated by analyzing government spending. The Milken Institute, an independent, economic-focused organization based in Santa Clara, California, dives deeper into these statistics. In July of 2019, The Milken Institute published their findings in the article “Priced Out: The Economic and Ethical Costs of American Health Care.” The authors write, “As a percentage of GDP and of per capita income, U.S. health spending is by far the highest in the world, even though the U.S. population is among the youngest among the developed nations. In 2017, total national health care spending in the United States amounted to about 17 percent of GDP, a claim projected to reach 20 percent by 2025. No other nation even comes close to ceding that large a slice of its economy to its health care sector.” (Priced Out..., 1) As a comparison, Canada spent just over 10% of its GDP in the same sector. It is clear that both countries form governmental policies with an emphasis on health, but the real-world application of those policies differs greatly. 

The extra seven percent that the American government spends can be attributed to unused services. While Canadians and Americans are offered similar government-funded services, Americans are less likely to use them. The authors at the Milken Institute write, “Americans actually consume less health care service in real terms (visits with physicians, hospital admissions and hospital days per admission, medications and so on) than do Europeans.” (Priced Out…, 6) Canadians, on the other hand, find no difficulty in regularly visiting the doctor. In fact, Canadians pride themselves on their healthcare system (McCourt, par. 1). It is no secret that Americans are more hesitant to see a doctor than their Canadian counterparts. Finding the motivation behind this behavior is simple.

Even though both nations offer national health insurance, the difference lays in the amount left for the citizens to pay out-of-pocket. Because of its strong infrastructure, Canadian citizens have the majority of their medical costs covered. In his 2016 article “Canada's insurance industry: fighting to keep health care affordable for Canadians as drug costs rise,”

Author D.F. McCourt proclaims, “More than three-quarters of Canadians have supplemental health care coverage, and over 50 percent of all prescription drug spending in the country is reimbursed by a private payer.” (par. 2) Citizens enjoy low costs due to the key collaboration between public and private industries (McCourt, par. 1). It is crucial to note that in both the United States and Canada, public and private healthcare industries co-exist. However, American healthcare companies compete against each other, causing chaos. Referring back to the article “Priced Out: The Economic and Ethical Costs of American Health Care,” the difference in infrastructure is significant. The authors write,

Most nations have relatively simple health insurance systems. Usually there is a heavily regulated social insurance scheme with uniform fee schedules and rules covering 90 to 95 percent of the population, along with a small private insurance market used by high-income households. The uniformity of fee schedules and rules creates ideal platforms for the smart application of health information technology that can lower administrative costs. By comparison, U.S. health insurance is highly complex, with myriad insurance schemes that vary by the socioeconomic and demographic status of the insured, as well as by employer for families covered by employer-sponsored insurance. (Priced Out…, 7)

The key difference in market competition explains the difference in costs and the subsequent differing opinions regarding healthcare. Even though both nations implement structures emphasizing democracy and capitalism, Canadians seem to enjoy much better healthcare. Despite the American government dumping 15-20% of its budget into healthcare reform, the United States cannot seem to catch up to the illustrious Canadian medicare system. It can be reasonably concluded that Americans are more reluctant to receive medical care because of the outstanding out-of-pocket costs they are left responsible for. There is nothing patriotic about lingering hospital bills and debt. The United States health administration leaves Americans feeling more “blue” in the iconic red, white, and blue.

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