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Unlike the private enterprise model, which is the foundation of the U. S. health care system, Canada has a health care system based on different principles:l) Universality: everyone is covered. 2) Portability:people can move from province to province and from job to job, or be un-employed, and they will still be covered. 3) Comprehensiveness: the plan covers all medically necessary treatment. 4) Public administration: the system is publicly run and publicly accountable.
Since 1947 Canada has had a tax-supported health care system in which every Canadian is covered for the costs of all medically necessary services. Under this plan, each citizen is issued a health card by the government, which is presented when health care is received. Using tax money, the govemment pays back physicians and hospitals, based on a fee schedule determined by the government, not the market. The keys are that the health services are paid for by the government and all Canadians have equal access to the care they need. Canadians can select any doctor they like. The plan is a " single payer"plan, with the doctors billing the provincial insurance plans directly (the government of each Canadian province pays the medical bills of its citizens) . For patients,there are no bills,claim forms, fees,and long waits for compensations from insurance carriers.
The key difference between the Canadian system and that in the United States is that"in Canada health care is considered a social right, while in the United States it is treated more like a commodity".
The usual arguments against such a plan are that it is inefficient and costly.ln Canada's case, health care is administered more efficiently, at less cost, and with better results, than the health care system in the United States. The results, as measured by infant mortality and life expectancy, show that Canada is ahead of the United States. Administrative costs are less in Canada (about one-fourth of U. S. administrative expenses for physicians, hospitals, and insurance companies) .
The Canadian health care system is not perfect. Canadians have less access than Americans to the latest technological innovations. There may be waits for those not needing immediate surgeries. But despite some small problems ,most Canadians like their health care system. A Gallup Poll in 1991 revealed, for example, that 91 percent of Canadians rated their health care system better than that in the United States, compared to only 26 percent of Americans who felt their system was su- perior to that in Canada.
56. The Canadian health care system is________
[ A] financially supported by private enterprises.
[ B] run according to different principles.
[ C] designed for the convenience of the public.
[ D] complicated by administration.