Comparing Canada and the United States has been difficult because each had their own method for delivery of the health care system. However, now that the United States has dived head first into a universal health care system there are a few areas that can be observed.
- Medical professionals
- Prescription medication
- Overall technology availability
- Malpractice litigation
Today, for the present, there are more medical health care professionals in the United States than there are in Canada. The population in the United States far surpasses the population of Canada so it would make sense there are more medical health care physicians in the United States than in Canada.
However, since the implementation of the new health care system earlier this year, many medical health care physicians have walked away from the entire system. A few United States medical health care physicians have moved on to practice their trade in other countries. Where this will leave the American citizens is yet to be discovered.
In the area of access to prescription medication, both Canada and the United States are even with the majority of the citizenry having some type of prescription health insurance plan. Though in Canada their prescription medication has not been nationalized, they still have provisions with each of the Provinces to administer medication to the needy and the elderly in the current population.
In the United States, the prescription medication is readily available to the senior citizens on Medicare and to the very poor through Medicaid. The remainder of the population has no access to affordable health insurance for medical prescriptions and must pay out of pocket or forfeit the medical prescription. Some individuals carry a partial payment policy through their employer if the employer carries health insurance coverage.
As far as technology, the United States spends more per capita for technological advances in the medical health care community than Canada, but the United States also brings in more money per capita because of population. Canada maintains a balance of 4.6 MRI scanners per million population and the United States owned 19.5 per million population. Canada maintains 10.3 CT scanners per million populations, while the United States owns 29.5 CT scanners per million populations.
However, it is not only the technological advances each country makes, but also the need for the technological staff to operate the machinery and to teach others in the medical field it will provide futile and not help the prospective patients.