Structure of the Health Care System

Many countries have taken the initiative of protecting the health of their citizens by establishing healthcare programmes. The U.S. is the biggest spending country in the sector of healthcare investment. The U.S. invested more than 17% of its gross domestic product in 2012 to the healthcare system which was totaling to more than $2.8 trillion. This expenditure was more than the overall GDP in the United Kingdom (Rice et al., 2014). However, after these huge investments, the healthcare system in the U.S. is not performing as other countries like Canada and France have outweighed its quality. Canada boasts with its healthcare system called Medicare which is funded from the public but managed privately (Irvine, Ferguson, &Cackett, 2005). Medicare provides free universal healthcare coverage.

• Expenditures

Medicare in Canada offers users with local control, consumer choices, and doctors’ autonomy. However, the federal government controls the healthcare system where it plans, finances, and evaluates service provision (Irvine, Ferguson, &Cackett, 2005). In comparison, France has the French Health Care System which only covers nearly 80% of its total population. The financing of this healthcare system in France comes from the employees and the employer contributions, and income taxes. Many of the insurance funds in France are private, and the employers’ manage their operations under the federal government (Couffinhal, 2001). On the other hand, the U.S. healthcare system is governed by the federal government where the state allocates expenditure funds (Rice et al., 2014).

• Allocation of Resources, Quality Indicators, and Outcomes

The healthcare system financing in the U.S., Canada, and France have one thing in common in that the federal government has full control of all the decisions made in the systems. On the expenditure side, Canada shares its expenditure to the public and private sectors. In the year 2004, the public sector spends 70% ($91.1 billion) of the total health spending while the private sector spends the remaining 30% ($130 billion). The total expenditure was about 10% of the country’s GDP (Irvine, Ferguson, &Cackett, 2005). In France, the public sector covers 75% of the healthcare system expenditure while the private sector covers for 30% (Couffinhal, 2001). The U.S. federal government finances the healthcare system where it pumps more than 10% of its GDP into the healthcare system (Rice et al., 2014).

The allocation of resources for the healthcare systems for Canada, France, and the U.S. faces a common challenge. Although the services under different health covers are free, the availability of resources is a problem (Rice et al., 2014). As for Canada, most of its population is aging, and they require a continuous supply of health care. However, the technical implementation for advanced technologies makes the process hard to admit. The Canadian Coordinating Office of Health Technology provides resources for the health care system in Canada (Irvine, Ferguson, &Cackett, 2005). In France, the government makes decisions on the allocation of resources to the healthcare system the hospital being the most significant stakeholders (Couffinhal, 2001). These healthcare programmes by the three countries have promoted health care provided to all classes of people. These public insurance covers have improved the performance of the healthcare systems globally.

Possible Barriers to Achieving Lower-Cost, Better-Quality Care the United States

The U.S. healthcare system has faced several challenges in the implementation of its plans for a better system. One of these challenges is the continued use of the fee-for-service payments introduced by Medicare. The second barrier to achieving a better healthcare system in the U.S. is the expectations for the providers to account for the healthcare costs they cannot control. The last possible barrier is the compensation of physicians based on the volume and ignoring the value of services they offer (Miller, 2012).

References

Couffinhal, A. (2001). The French Health Care System: A Brief Overview. Retrieved from             http://www.irdes.fr/english/documentation/documents/the-french-health-care-        system.pdf

Irvine, B., Ferguson, S., &Cackett, B. (2002). Background Briefing: The Canadian Health            Care System. Retrieved from http://civitas.org.uk/pdf/Canada.pdf

Miller, H. (2012). Ten Barriers to Healthcare Payment Reform And How to Overcome Them.       Retrieved from             http://www.chqpr.org/downloads/OvercomingBarrierstoPaymentReform.pdf

Rice, T., Unruh, L., Rosenau, P., Barnes, A., Saltman, R., & van Ginneken, E. (2014).       Challenges facing the United States of America in implementing universal coverage.         Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 92(12), 894-902. Doi:             10.2471/blt.14.141762

 
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