Chapter 3-Health Care in Canada

Canada's health care system is a publicly funded health care system, with most services provided by private entities. It is not a true public system even though the government calls it. Health care is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions. The healthcare industry is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing industries. Consuming over 10 percent of gross domestic product of most developed nations. Health care can form an enormous part of a country's economy.The healthcare industry includes the delivery of health services by health care providers.Usually such services receive payment from the patient or from the patient's insurance company; although they may be government-financed. There are many ways of providing healthcare in the modern world. The most common way is face-to-face delivery, where care provider and patient see each other. This is what occurs in general medicine in most countries. However, healthcare is not always face-to-face; with modern telecommunications technology, patients can communicate over the phone, video conferencing, the internet, email, text messages, with the care provider.

The largest government health program is medicare. The largest group the federal government is directly responsible for is first nations. Native peoples are a federal responsibility and the federal government guarantees complete coverage of their health needs. For the most part First Nations people use the normal hospitals and the federal government then fully compensates the provincial government for the expense. The federal government also covers any user fees the province charges. The federal government maintains a network of clinics and health centres.The largest of these is the health care costs paid by the worker's compensation system. Despite being a provincial responsibility, the large health costs have long been partially funded by the federal government. To considerable pressure on the provinces, and combined with population ageing and the generally high rate of inflation in health costs, has caused problems with the system.

A concern that low-income person may be able to afford adequate health care has prompted governments to keep the price of health care low. The price of going to the doctor was reduced to zero. If effect, governments have introduced price on health care. Price result in shortages, and governments are faced with the problem of rationing health care. Those people who were concerned about their health and could afford it would probably get the necessary vaccination. They would purchase the vaccination from a doctor or health clinic. In this transaction, both would benefit. The doctor is paid for services and the consumer receives immunization against the disease. In this situation, a government may step in to ensure that more of this service is provided. This intervention may be accomplished by using tax dollars to subsidize the doctor or the health clinic. Increase government spending on health care would benefit both doctors and patients. Many Canadians have private health insurance, often through their employers, that cover these expenses.

I personally think that health care is important for our daily life. The demand for the health care is necessary for each indivdiuals. I believe that the government should focus its attention on health care system. Due to the average population ageing increases, the demand for health care increases. When there are more people waiting for the operation line in hospitals due to increases of sickness. The federal government had the responsibility of protecting the health and well-being of the population.

Link: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/pubs/public-consult/2000decision/1-cas_e.html