Global Health Systems

Global Health Systems

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Global Health Systems

The term “healthcare” refers to maintain or improve the health by preventing, diagnosing and treating various sorts of diseases, illnesses, injuries, and many other mental and physical ailments in people. All over the world, healthcare is provided by the healthcare professional in their respective fields, but the delivery and quality of these services vary from region to region. Countries differ in how they treat their patients and ill-community in various ways. There are certain aspects through which the quality or the level of healthcare can be assessed. Some of the most important aspects out of these are quality cost and access to healthcare.

The Healthcare system in the United States of America is considered to be the best all over the world (Shi, & Singh, 2014). This ranking has been given on the basis of above-mentioned aspects. The healthcare system in the US is cheap, affordable, fulfills the needs of almost everybody and tends to provide the highest quality of health services to every age group. The upcoming details compare the three important aspects or dimensions of healthcare in the United States with one of another big country, Canada.

Both countries used to follow the same healthcare system since 1960. In the decades of 1960 and 1970 (Mossialos, Wenzl, Osborn, & Sarnak, 2016), Canada moved on to its own unique healthcare system which consisted of different plans and programs according to the medical needs of the population of the country.

Quality of Care

Talking about the quality of the healthcare systems, the healthcare system being adopted currently in the United States of America is the best among all the nations in the world. A survey conducted in 2018 by World Health Organization (WHO) decided a complete rating of the “overall health service performance” which was based on the "composite measure of achievement in the level of health, the distribution of health, the level of responsiveness and fairness of financial contribution". The overall score that was given to the quality of healthcare services in the United States was much higher as compared to the score of the quality of the healthcare services in Canada. One of the most positive aspects of the healthcare system of the United States was the "responsiveness" which was ranked at number one as compared to the Canadian healthcare system, which ranked on 7th. Moreover, the method of delivery of the services related to health also ranked much higher in the case of the United States as compared to the method of delivery of health service in Canada.

Cost of Healthcare

Considering the difference between the costs of providing healthcare services to the patients, it also varies considerably between both the countries, i.e., Unites States of America and Canada. As per various surveys and studies, the United States spends much more on healthcare services, as compared to Canada. As per the records of 2018, the total amount of money that the US government spent in the healthcare sector was a whopping $3.65 trillion. This sum of money is much higher than the GDPs of many cou8ntries like Mexico, the United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil and Canada itself. When divided, the total spending in each person comes out to be $11212, with 59% of this amount going to hospitals, private clinics, doctors, and clinical services. In comparison to this, the total expenditure incurred on healthcare services in Canada was $253.5 billion, which makes approximately $6839 per individual. This is much less as compared to the US expenditure hence the cost of medical services or expenses on medical services is much lower as compared to the expenses in Canada.

Access to Medical Care

Access to medical facilities or medical facilities may be a problem in both nations. Research has proved that 40% of the citizens in the United States of America do not have a proper healthcare coverage plan, whereas 5% of the Canadian citizens cannot find a qualified doctor in the times of need. It has also been found out that a total of 40% of the American citizens aged between 18 – 64 do not have a complete or any access to the healthcare services. On the other hand, if the Canadian population is considered, 20 – 30% of the rural population in Canada still does not have access to adequate health care or medical facilities. The reason for this gap or difference is the easy availability of medical services in the urban areas while the people living in rural areas have to travel almost 60 km to reach a medical facility.

How the World Health Organization (WHO) helps to provide health care in times of need.

World Health Organization, commonly known as WHO, provided adequate healthcare services to almost all the countries in the world. The main duty of this organization is to look over the fact that whether the residents of all the countries in the world are receiving a satisfactory level of healthcare services in their area. For this purpose, WHO makes sure that there are enough medical facilities in every area to cover the needs of the people living in that area. World Health Organization also provides its services in times of need when there is some emergency situation in some area. Example of this can be seen in the form of the occurrence of natural disaster and calamities in the world (Alirol, et. al, 2017). WHO plays its part in such situations and sets up temporary medical camps in the calamity struck areas, where it provides necessary drugs and vaccinations to the local people.

References

Alirol, E., Kuesel, A. C., Guraiib, M. M., de la Fuente-Núñez, V., Saxena, A., & Gomes, M. F. (2017). Ethics review of studies during public health emergencies-the experience of the WHO ethics review committee during the Ebola virus disease epidemic. BMC medical ethics, 18(1), 43.

Mossialos, E., Wenzl, M., Osborn, R., & Sarnak, D. (2016). 2015 international profiles of health care systems. Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health.

Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2014). Delivering health care in America. Jones & Bartlett Learning.