HSS420 IP4.5

HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS

Healthcare Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United States

Unit 1 Individual Project

Carlene Baines

HSS 420

Professor Souad Chakib

June 26, 2024

Healthcare Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United States

Healthcare is essential to any country’s development, and healthcare systems vary dramatically worldwide. This dependent variable paper analyzes the quality, cost, and availability of medical services in the US and contrasts them with those of Canada, Germany, and Japan. Further, it explores how WHO (World Health Organization) helps countries respond to health emergencies.

Quality of Care

The United States is renowned for its advanced medical technology, world-class research institutions, and highly skilled healthcare professionals. In the medical sciences, it bears the highest number of inventions proven in American hospitals and research facilities (Ngwa et al., 2021). It demonstrated some of the highest survival rates for certain cancers and performed well in intricate surgery. Thus, the quality of care remains low in some of these areas despite the increasing patient traffic. Despite spending much on health, the US has a lower health status than it should have. This could have happened if it had compared its health to that of other nations.

Canada has the “Medicare” system, where citizens and permanent residents are eligible for coverage. Accessibility is average, but the quality of care offered is good, with significant importance given to promoting prevention and primary care services (Marchildon et al., 2020). So, according to the criteria above for life expectancy and infant mortality, Canada does slightly better than the USA. However, some evident issues with implementing the Bismarck Model include increased wait times for elective procedures and specialist consultations, as well as the absence of some advanced medical technologies due to cost cuts.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention fact sheet shows that Germany is among the leading countries in terms of an efficient and well-developed system of universal health coverage. In the United States, the study shows that Germany has lower mortality rates from various preventable diseases, reasonable control of chronic diseases, and more contact with medical doctors per population. The country implements enhanced prevention and health promotion measures, as well as extensive campaigns to raise awareness of several diseases and improve people's health status. Germany remains committed to medical research and development. While it may not offer specific procedures that are standard in the U.S., it spends a significant amount on medical research.

According to Ngami & Ventelou (2020), Japan's healthcare system is highly responsive, ranking among the highest for life expectancy and the lowest for infant mortality. It also reports improved health for the population, even at lower healthcare expenditures than in the United States, due to better preventive care, disease screening, and adequate access to technologically advanced medical technologies. However, the number of doctors in Japan's rural areas poses certain challenges, with some of them grappling with a scarcity of professionals in this field or extended work hours.

Cost of Health Care

America spends an enormous amount of money on facilities and services, which is far more than any other developed country. In 2020, healthcare expenditures in the United States were $4 trillion (Rama, 2020). According to the World Bank, this amounts to $1 trillion, or $12,530 per person, which is 19% higher than in 1990, when the proportion of the population living on less than $1 per day was 1. Representing 7% of the nation’s gross domestic product, the funds contribute to healthcare and welfare reform efforts nationwide. However, the annual cost indicates that a significant number of Americans lack insurance or have inadequate coverage, leading to financial difficulties when faced with medical bills.

This inclusive healthcare system in Canada encompasses several components, including the following: Despite being a publicly funded model of the Canadian medical system, it still covers everyone and spends roughly $11; COVID-19-related expenditures will be 5% of the country's GDP in 2020 (WHO, 2022). The cost to individuals is way cheaper, owing to the primary medical treatment that government-funded insurance usually covers. Canadians pay for their health care directly through taxes, with no additional expenses left unreimbursed. However, the health care plans did not include certain services, like prescription drugs and dental care.

Germany has a multi-payer system that includes both statutory and private health insurance organizations, and it spent approximately 11.1% of its total gross domestic product on health in 2020 (Blümel et al., 2020). Both the parent employer and the employees contribute to health care insurance, which is mandatory and paid according to income level. Yearly deductibles also limit some costs by spreading the costs of medication and other services more evenly, preventing people with low incomes from feeling overwhelmed by their healthcare costs.

On their part, Japan can deliver a high standard of care at a comparatively lower price since it spent about 11% of its GDP on health care in 2020. The current health insurance system covers every citizen, and the premium that patients contribute is income-based. Patients must contribute 30% of the hospital bill, up to the monthly premiums (Fukawa, 2023). Summary: The government enforces price restraints regulating medical services, as well as medicines and other drugs, to ensure prices remain affordable.

Access to medical care

The American people wait. The social organization of health in the United States has long reflected individuals' insurance status and financial resources. In this position paper, I describe the uninsured as those who know they have health insurance but cannot afford it or those who cannot due to the Affordable Care Act.

Due to socioeconomic status and geographic location, the system frequently denies people fair access, and as Cooper et al. (2010) point out, high expenses may be another obstacle to health care. However, compared to patients in other nations, Americans wait shorter to see specialists or have elective surgeries performed. The Canadian government guarantees that all citizens, irrespective of age or other prerequisites, have access to these medical treatments. This implies that an MCO provides insurance-covered services at no cost to the insured, enhancing their access to healthcare regardless of their financial status. However, Canada still faces difficulties in providing healthcare to those living in remote areas, as well as lengthy waiting lists for some non-urgent operations and appointments with specialists.

Comparing Access

Unlike Canada, which has been implementing coverage for all its citizens, the U.S. system makes some people uninsured or underinsured. While costs remain relatively low in Canada, they can be a huge factor in the US, even for those with health insurance coverage, as the amount they must pay directly is often high in co-payments or high deductibles. Relatively, access to specialists and elective surgical services has a shorter waiting time in most of Canada. In CRI, there are some common issues related to access to primary care physicians, including insufficient coverage in rural and underserved regions. The United States might receive some new medications faster than others, while the drug formulary available through provincial plans can make many prescriptions cheaper for Canadians.

The World Health Organization's Role

WHO's duties are essential to global health, especially during continued outbreak control. In the COVID-19 outbreak, WHO was mainly involved in managing the growing public health crisis and directed vaccine and treatment research. It also informed countries about measures that could help prevent the spread of the virus and sent professionals and materials to the affected countries. The WHO acts in accordance with disease epidemics that may occur worldwide, such as the Ebola outbreak that occurred from 2014 to 2016 in the West African region. In conflict areas or regions affected by natural disasters, WHO provides necessary healthcare services or helps to maintain access to them, supports the work of moving clinics, supplies medications, and assists in training local healthcare specialists. Some countries control global vaccines, including those of children worldwide, especially from developing countries, through some of their initiatives, such as the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. As the WHO points out, it also assists countries in developing robust and sustainable health systems. For example, it provided support for Haiti's health system reconstruction following the 2010 earthquake, which destroyed many health facilities. Furthermore, it assisted with health worker training and other aspects of implementing a national health plan.

Conclusion

This comparative assessment provides essential findings on the significant quality and price disparities as well as the overall availability of comprehensive care across the contemporary healthcare systems of Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United States. Although each system has advantages and disadvantages, the UCC models indicate superior and fair healthcare affordability compared to the US. Nevertheless, the United States is known to be highly advanced in medical technology and has expertise in treating various diseases. The World Health Organization's provision of healthcare, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, necessitates a global collective understanding of common health issues. Therefore, it states that refining our existing models and learning from other countries' healthcare systems through international organizations like the WHO can help improve people's health.

References

Blümel, M., Spranger, A., Achstetter, K., Maresso, A., & Busse, R. (2020). Germany: health system review.

Fukawa, T. (2023). Implications from Japan-Germany comparisons on social security. Journal of Future Welfare Research.

Marchildon, G. P., Allin, S., & Merkur, S. (2020). Canada: health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 22(3).

Ngami, A., & Ventelou, B. (2023). Respective healthcare system performances taking into account environmental quality: what are the re-rankings for OECD countries? Health Research Policy and Systems, 21(1), 57.

Ngwa, W., Olver, I., & Schmeler, K. M. (2020). The use of health-related technology to reduce the gap between developed and undeveloped regions around the globe. The Educational Book of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, volume 40, pages 227–236, was published.

Rama, A. (2020). Policy research perspectives. Payment and delivery in. World Health Organization. (2022). Global spending on health: rising to the pandemic’s challenges. World Health Organization.