Around 50 million Americans today are uninsured or inadequately insured, thanks to the economic downturn and the rising unemployment. This is quite a distressing condition as Americans are not the healthiest of the lot compared to Britons, Canadians and citizens of 27 other nations according to survey reports.
Most of the uninsured individuals fall into the category of having lost insurance due to losing jobs or simply the unaffordable class who cannot afford to pay high deductibles and high co-insurance.
Canadian health care system has its own hiccups as there are doctors’ shortage in many areas, long waits for some elective surgical procedures like cataract surgery, lesser number of nursing homes which result in crowded hospitals occupied by the elderly and various other factors. However, the good news is that every Canadians is insured and are eligible for physician care and medical attention at the expense of the government. In addition, they also pay higher taxes. Another important point to note is that Canadian citizens never go bankrupt because of medical expenses whereas millions of Americans have filed bankruptcy due to high health care costs.
In addition, the health care system works in Canada as a single-payer system. The doctor’s bills are cleared by the government. This makes functioning more efficient.
