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A different look at a Health Care system at a reasonable cost to the consumer. MA.

By Sarah Kliff
July 1, 2012
We spend a decent amount of time talking about the Canadian health care system in our health care debate. Today being Canada Day (yes, really), it feels like a good time to brush up on how our northern neighbors actually deliver health care and how well it works. Without further ado, a completely painless guide to the Canadian health care system.
So, how exactly does the Canadian health care system work?
The Canadian health care system was built around the principle that all citizens will receive all “medically necessary and hospital physician services.” To that end, each of Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories finance and run a statewide health insurance program. There is no cost-sharing for the health care services guaranteed under federal law.
While Canadians are guaranteed access to hospital and physician services, it is up to each province to decide whether to cover “supplementary” benefits, like dental care and drug coverage. About two-thirds of Canadians take out private, supplemental insurance policies (or have an employer-sponsored plan) to cover these services.

While Canada is traditionally thought of as a publicly financed system, spending on these supplemental benefits means that 30 percent of health spending comes from private sources. One 2011 study found that nearly all Canadian spending on dental care came from non-government dollars, 60 percent covered by employer-sponsored plans and 35 percent paid out of pocket. Some Canadian legislators have made pushes to increase the scope of Canada’s public health plan, to cover more services, but have so far proved unsuccessful.
While Canada’s health care system is publicly financed, many providers are not government employees. Instead, doctors are usually reimbursed by the government at a negotiated fee-for-service rate. The average primary care doctor in Canada earns $125,000 (in the United States, that number stands at $186,000).
How much does it cost?

In 2009, Canada spent 11.4 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on health care, which puts it on the slightly higher end of OECD countries:

This probably has a lot to do with the lower unit cost of health care in Canada. An MRI that costs, on average, $1,200 in the United States comes in at $824 north of the border. It also has to do with lower administrative costs: A 2010 Health Affairs study found that doctors in Ontario, a Canadian province, spent $22,205 each year dealing with the single-payer agency, compared to the $82,975 American doctors spend dealing with private insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid.
How well does the Canadian health care system work?
The OECD tends to give the Canadian health care system high marks on outcomes in its regular look at international health care systems. “Canada’s survival rates for breast and colorectal cancer are among the highest in the OECD,” the international organization noted in its 2011 report. “Canada also does well in primary care, preventing costly hospital admissions from chronic conditions such as asthma and uncontrolled diabetes.”

Where Canada does not do well is on wait times, which tend to be longer than in other countries, especially to see specialists or obtain an elective surgery. A Commonwealth Fund survey in 2010 found that 59 percent of respondents reported waiting more than four weeks for an appointment with a specialist, more than double the number in the United States:

Canada has recently started taking steps to address this: In 2005, it had each province set evidence-based benchmarks for wait times for various procedures. “Provinces have made considerable progress with efforts to manage and reduce wait times, and many now meet wait-time benchmarks for at least 75 percent of patients,” the Commonwealth Fund found in 2010 report. “Generally, when available, trend data show waits for care are decreasing in the areas of joint replacement, sight restoration, cardiac surgery, and diagnostic imaging scans.”
Do Canadians like their health care system?

Canadians certainly view their health care system as crucial to national identity: 85 percent say that eliminating the public plan would “result in a fundamental change to the nature of Canada.”
That does not, however, mean there isn’t gripping about its shortcomings. A 2007 poll conducted by Queens University in Kingston, Ont. found that, while public opinion had ticked up slightly, “a large majority of Canadians still believe that the system is unsustainable and urgently in need of substantive change.” Most of the concerns had to do with long wait times and difficulty accessing care. The survey also found widespread support for increasing health care spending.
Put into an international perspective, however, Canada’s system looks to be relatively well liked. A 2011 Gallup Poll found that 57 percent of Canadians felt “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their access to health care services (in the United States, that number stood at just 25 percent).

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Medicare for all-this is touted by one Presidential candidate but rebutted by the current majority party. There have been no real details on the medicare for all proposal but there have been outrageous numbers put out by those against it. The article below shows how the UK (and possibly Canada) deal with Healthcare along with other social welfare programs, pay attention to the highlighted areas. MA.

Richard Craig, Lived in the UK and elsewhere
Answered Mar 16 2018 · Author has 1.3k answers and 618.5k answer views

The NHS receives roughly 20% of total tax revenue. How much you pay is, naturally, dependent on what you earn.
Median incomes in the U.K. are around £22–25k. Someone earning £25k will pay approximately £5k of income tax and NI, meaning they pay about £1000pa for the NHS on the face of it and that would be on their tax statement.
The situation is more complicated because there are other indirect taxes, VAT, duty etc all of which go into the pot. Someone earning £25k usually ends up paying £9k in taxes total. By that measure, the NHS ends up costing about £1800pa or £150 a month.
More Answers Below
How much does the average UK person (in full time employment) spend each year in taxes on the NHS compared to an equivalent private health plan…
Why can’t the UK privatise the NHS? Why should people be forced to pay for other people on benefits?
How much money is given to UK hospitals from NHS for each birth delivered? Is there a different payment for different types of births?
Why does the UK government have so little money to pay for the NHS, education and other public services despite taxing citizens heavily?
Should the UK abolish the NHS?
Cameron MacDonald Gazzola Black, lives in The United Kingdom (1965-present)
Answered Mar 16, 2018 · Upvoted by Joe Jacobs, former Consultant Child Psychotherapist at National Health Service (1980-2015) · Author has 964 answers and 161.9k answer views

Officially, the NHS is paid for through National Insurance (in reality that hasn’t been the case for a long time, as governments simply add NI to the general taxation pot and use as much or, much more likely, as little of it as they want to use for the NHS). NI is currently about 13% of each worker’s wages up to a ceiling earnings level beyond which no more is paid. So if someone is earning the equivalent of US$30000, they pay about $330 a month of National Insurance. BUT, it’s more complicated than that, because NI doesn’t only pay for the NHS, it also pays for the entire benefits (welfare) budget, including old age pensions, unemployment benefits, disability benefits, housing benefit and much more, and all of that dwarfs the NHS budget. So my best guess would be that an average worker pays maybe $100 a month towards the NHS.
But there’s more. The NHS includes FAR more than average US healthcare plans. It includes dental health, eye health, the right to see the best doctor available for your condition, every penny of every hospital stay, all prescription costs in three of the four nations of the UK (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), my American wife’s orthopaedic shoes are free on the NHS, the list goes on and on. And all of that is freely available to everyone in the country, whether working or not. We pay much less for healthcare than Americans do, we’re all covered to a much higher level than all but the very richest Americans, and our governments pay far less for healthcare than the US government does.
There’s a reason we wouldn’t give it up without a hell of a fight.

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