Comparisons of US, UK, and Canada Health Care Sectors - Research Paper Example

Comparisons of US, UK, and Canada Health Care Sectors Mohammed Aldawsari 230110934 Jan 27, HHSC 103 Kari Harder of Northern British Columbia Comparisons of US, UK, and Canada healthcare sectors National health policies can play an important role in the general well being of a country. Different countries have different health policies. These policies might be affected by various factors including political, social, and economic aspect of a country. These policies have a very big effect on the availability of health care services. The places whose policies and availability of healthcare services were studied are: the UK, the United States of America, and Canada. The policies were discovered to be similar and different in various ways. With reference to the studies on the policies of individual countries, this paper aims at comparing the accessibility of health care services in the UK, the United States of America, and Canada. An aspect that was looked upon in all cases is the equality in the nature of the provision of health care services. In the United States of America it was discovered that this aspect of healthcare provision was unpredictable. At times people would get timely and quality health care while during other incidences they would get substandard services. However, the issues about inequalities in health care provision are likely to completely decrease with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (Thompson, Perz, Moorman& Holmberg, 2009). In the UK there are various differences in the availability of health care services to the public. In the UK, visitors and illegal residents are always accorded free treatment of emergency visits. However, there is a restriction on co-payment on services such as mental health care, dental health care, vision care, and palliative care. Free health care services are offered to children, senior citizen, lower income families and pregnant women. In comparison to healthcare provision in the United States of America, someone can notice that the healthcare sector in the UK is more discriminative(NHS England, 2014). In Canada. Medicare is handled independently by the ten provinces. The health care services in these provinces are run by the revenues that are collected by the federal governments. It is upon the provincial governments to make decisions on how far they will go in the provision of Medicare without premiums. The basics including public health are access to a family doctor, emergency care, basic hospital treatment, sanitation, guard and treatment of infectious diseases and related education. It is upon the provincial governments to decide whether they will give extended services or not. Looking at the healthcare system in Canada, someone will not fail to notice that is the most fare of the three systems that are being compared (Conferenceboard.ca. 2014). All the basic health care services are provided at the expense of the provincial governments. When the cost of health care services is looked into in all the cases, it is noticed that the high cost of health care services is a threat to the provision of health care services in the United States of America. The situation is quite different in Canada. Healthcare services in Canada are more affordable as compared to the United States of America. This affordability is attributed to the fact that healthcare services in Canada are provided at the expense of the provincial governments. The situation does not seem to be any different in the UK. As much as there is evidence of high quality healthcare in the UK, it is still evident that these services can be very costly at some time. In Canada secondary health care services are not supported by the Canada Health Act. In Canada secondary health care services refer to services such as specialized care at a hospital, long-term care facility or in the community and sometimes at homes. With the Affordable Care Act in the United States of America, things are likely to be very different from the situation in Canada. The Affordable Care Act does not only cater for primary care, but also takes care of health care services that are considered to be secondary in Canada. In the UK, things are very different broom, both Canada and the United States of America. In the UK, the determinant of the service provision in the status of the individual patient.it can also be determined by the nature of the health problem.For instance, there is a restriction on co-payment on services such as mental health care, dental health care, vision care, and palliative care. Looking at Canada, the UK, and The United States of America, it is easily noticeable that there has been a general decrease in the amount of time taken for medical procedures. In Canada it can be said to be a result of the 10 year plan that was taken by the federal government and the provincial ones in improving the healthcare sector in Canada. In the United States of America it can be said to be a result of the Affordable Care Act, which is believed to have very many positive to the healthcare sector of the United States of America. In the UK it can be as a result of policies such as Dementia policy, which has highly increased the rate of diagnosis in the UK healthcare sector (NHS England, 2014). In comparison to the United States of America, Canada has recorded less death cases that result from procedural mistakes that result from human error. The difference can be attributed to the way the Canadian government have over the past decade put much emphasis on making healthcare services in the country of high quality. As much as they also make it affordable, they do not compromise the quality. The United States of America are also putting emphasis in the quality of health care in the county, but put much of its emphasis on the affordability of these services (Thompson, Perz, Moorman & Holmberg, 2009). Life expectancy in Canada in generally higher than that of both the United States of America and the UK. Many of these are attributed to the Healthcare policies in Canada. In Canada, the US, and the UK, there has been a notable increase in the rate at which healthcare facilities are making use of electronic record keeping techniques. The use of keeping of electronic healthcare records improves the quality of health care services. The increase in quality can be as a result of increased accuracy, increased increase in the ease in data retrieval, and the fact that the use of electronic data keeping systems saves both time and physical space. As the world advances technologically, people health care is likely to be more and more dependent on technology. Dependency on technology can be of both negative and positive impacts to health care services provision. If the three health care systems are compared, there will be the realization that the public in the UK in the level of health services. The majority of the respondents were satisfied by the services offered in the public health facilities. Better responses are expected from Canada given the many developments that have been seen in this country’s health care system in the past decade. The response from the United States of America showed mixed reactions. The division in the response was almost even. However, a good number of the respondents had the belief that things are likely to get better with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. The following of patients’ rights and freedom in the health care practices makes it more satisfying to the public. This is different from Canada where healthcare practices are more physician centered with very little considerations made on the opinions of the patient. On the other hand, the health care system in the United States of America can be said to be a blend of both patient centered and physician centered health care. However, it can still be noted that all the three health care systems have made significant steps toward making their services satisfactory to the public. There are various problems that face all the three healthcare systems that have been previously discussed. One of such problems is the shortage of healthcare professionals to take care of the highly increasing populations. It was noticed that Canada, the UK, and the United States of America all face crisis in the shortage of physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. This is evidently not a problem that is noticeable only in the three cases that are discussed, but a problem that is facing the whole world. Developing countries are even more affected by this problem. It has not yet been determined how exactly this problem can be tackled, but the fact that it is a global problem is an indication that getting the solution to this problem will not be a walk in the park. However, with proper management of the limited human resources in this field and the use of technology is likely to make it easier to live with such problems. It is clearly evident that the healthcare systems in the three cases are very different. The various differences are brought about by the difference in the healthcare policies that are used in the three cases. The difference might also be as a difference in political factors such as government’s commitment in providing quality and affordable health care. Looking at UK, someone will notice that there are policies that are quality driven, but bureaucracy and corruption compromises these commitments. Nevertheless, it is also important to note that there are developments in the quality of services in all the three cases discussed. References Conferenceboard.ca. (2014).Health performance | health outcomes | Canada health ranking. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/health.aspx [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014]. Thompson, N. D., Perz, J. F., Moorman, A. C., & Holmberg, S. D. (2009). Nonhospital health care–associated hepatitis B and C virus transmission: United States, 1998–2008. Annals of Internal Medicine, 150(1), 33-39. NHS England. (2014). CCG outcome indicator set 2014/15 at a glance. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/ccg-ois-1415-at-a-glance.pdf [Accessed: 12 Mar 2014]. Read More