VISTA Health Solutions

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.

One of the little discussed problems facing both Canadian citizens and United States citizens is the access to affordable health insurance and medical health care. Both countries revel now in the fact that they have finally joined forces and have a unified universal health insurance plan. The United States very recently joined the ranks of one for all and all for one.

It seems that both government entities revel in the cost savings in terms of monetary value, but overlook the actual delivery system of their respective health care. Does having a health insurance policy guarantee you medical health care coverage? How many individuals will now be mandated to carry a health insurance policy that is virtually useless to the individual?

Would you buy the best, safest automobile on the market only to park it in your drive way and never drive it out on the road? Would you prepare a banquet of delicious food only to sit down and stare at it?

In Canada and now in the United States, every citizen is mandated to carry and pay for a health insurance policy, but it still does not mean you will have access to the health care delivery system. There are many individuals and families in the United States who have adequate and affordable health insurance, but they have no access to a medical health care physician.

Other citizens are underinsured or uninsured, some because they have no other alternative, some because they have no reason to purchase health insurance. Many individuals go cradle to grave and never see a medical health care physician and have never stepped inside a hospital facility.

Many of the wealthy citizens in the United States have always prided themselves in paying for their medical health care needs because they have the money. How did the health insurance industry get its start? It certainly was not created to help those who could pay for themselves. The entire health insurance industry began to help the poor in the communities across the country gain access to affordable health insurance coverage as the cost for medical health care increased.

In Canada and in the United States it was a means for the poor to afford genuine health care assistance by paying a monthly fee to a centralized location and in return, they would receive the necessary medical health care assistance as the opportunity arose. What will we the people be left with now?