Health Care
United States vs Canada
Health care is a big problem for most of the lower income parents I assist in the child welfare program. These parents had health insurance as a family before their kids came into state care. Once the kids are removed from the home the parents lose the health coverage they had through the state. These parents need counseling and treatment services and no longer have health insurance to cover the costs. However, they can reapply for state health insurance for themselves and go onto a waiting list. This waiting list is endless and most parents are unable to get health insurance in time to start their court ordered services. There are very few parents that are able to get assistance or free services to cover the costs of treatment and counseling, as they wait for their name to come up on the waiting list.
I would like this country to have a universal health care system like Canada and most other countries. I’ve read that the US will not change to a universal health care system due to patients having to wait for long periods of time to be seen, and that those in the medical field do not earn as much money. Canada has a solution for this by having privatized heath insurance, for those who can afford it, so physicians can make more money and patients can be seen sooner. I found a cross country health care chart that shows the comparisons of the United States and Canada along with several other countries. I find it interesting that those in Canada live longer, and that their infant mortality rate is lower than ours.
Please read the following article and see chart below……….
Direct comparisons of health statistics across nations are complex. The Commonwealth Fund, in its annual survey, "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall", compares the performance of the health care systems in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and the U.S. Its 2007 study found that, although the U.S. system is the most expensive, it consistently underperforms compared to the other countries.[15] A major difference between the U.S. and the other countries in the study is that the U.S. is the only country without universal health care. The OECD also collects comparative statistics, and has published brief country profiles.
Comparison of the health care systems in Canada and the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
| Infant mortality rate | Physicians per 1000 people | Nurses per 1000 people | Healthcare costs as a percent of GDP | |||||
| 81.4 | 4.2 | 2.8 | 9.7 | 3,137 | 8.7 | 17.7 | 67.7 | |
| 81.3 | 5.0 | 2.2 | 9.0 | 3,895 | 10.1 | 16.7 | 69.8 | |
| 81.0 | 4.0 | 3.4 | 7.7 | 3,601 | 11.0 | 14.2 | 79.0 | |
| 79.8 | 3.8 | 3.5 | 9.9 | 3,588 | 10.4 | 17.6 | 76.9 | |
| 82.6 | 2.6 | 2.1 | 9.4 | 2,581 | 8.1 | 16.8 | 81.3 | |
| 80.0 | 3.0 | 3.8 | 16.2 | 5,910 | 9.0 | 17.9 | 83.6 | |
| 81.0 | 2.5 | 3.6 | 10.8 | 3,323 | 9.2 | 13.6 | 81.7 | |
| 79.1 | 4.8 | 2.5 | 10.0 | 2,992 | 8.4 | 15.8 | 81.7 | |
| 78.1 | 6.7 | 2.4 | 10.6 | 7,290 | 16.0 | 18.5 | 45.4 |
Life Expectancy vs Health Care Spending in 2007 for OECD Countries.
The data source is; http://www.oecd.org.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the information about health care. It is such an important issue which affects many people. I also work with families who do not have health care and we try to help them apply for services. Many adults go on a long wait list. Our state is working to get all chldren much needed health care.
Alissa
Hi Shari:
ReplyDeleteI support your thoughts on the need for health care for all. I sometimes feel we treat it as if is something for the 'haves' and excludes the 'have-nots.' I actually researched and wrote a term paper during my Bachelor's on universal health care in comparison to the U.S. system. I found research that concluded the arguments for sub-standard care, long-lines waiting for services, and 'death' councils are actually scare tactics used by lobbyists for the health insurance industry. If you look deeper, you will find solutions these countries have found to avoid such problems, such as the one you mentioned in Canada.
Another argument is the high taxes we would be paying. It is also used when we talk about universal preschool and other programs offered to all citizens in other developed countries. However, if you do a cost comparison of what Americans pay out-of-pocket, we will probably find that it would not result in any additional financial burden or may even be less expensive. Consider that instead of coming from one account, it just flows through another.
Wow!!! Thanks for your post I actually gained some knowledge about health care. I will say; yes we are provided with health care but thee are some that do not utilize the health care. They are taking care of themselves like they should, providing proper care.
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