Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-31T15:16:51.027Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Myths, Misperceptions, and Policy Learning: Comparing Healthcare in the United States and Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Abstract

The U.S. and Canadian health care systems are more similar than is commonly believed. This article debunks some of the powerful myths about these health care systems and opens up the discussion for greater policy learning from both sides of the border. Cross-border comparisons can yield a number of lessons from common policy challenges such as cost control, physician organization and payment, and the organization of health coverage and services for Native Americans and Indigenous Canadians.

Type
Symposium Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Hacker, J.C., The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002): at 221269.Google Scholar
Marchildon, G.P., Health Systems in Transition: Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2nd ed., 2013): at 2529.Google ScholarPubMed
Marchildon, G.P. and Bossert, T.J., “An Introduction to Federalism and Decentralization in Health Care,” in Marchildon, G.P. and Bossert, T.J., eds., Federalism and Decentralization in Health Care: A Decision Space Approach (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018): 315.Google Scholar
Béland, D., Rocco, P., and Waddan, A., Obamacare Wars: Federalism, State Politics and the Affordable Care Act (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2016): at 139.Google Scholar
Watts, R.L., The Spending Power in Federal Systems: A Comparative Study (Kingston, ON: Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, Queen’s University, 1999): at 112.Google Scholar
See Marchildon, id. note 2: at 70-79.Google Scholar
Crisp, N. and Chen, L., “Global Supply of Health Professionals,” New England Journal of Medicine 370, no. 10 (2014): 950957, doi: 10.1056/NEJMra1111610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morra, D., Nicholson, S., Levinson, W., Gans, D.N., Hammons, T., and Casalino, L.P., “US Physician Practices Versus Canadians: Spending Nearly Four Times as Much Money Interacting with Payers,” Health Affairs 30, no. 8 (2011): 14431450, 10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0893.Google Scholar
Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “State Operations Manual Appendix V Interpretive Guidelines Responsibilities of Medicare Participating Hospitals,” revised July 16, 2010, available at <https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Guidance/Manuals/downloads/som107ap_V_emerg.pdf> (last visited October 16, 2018).+(last+visited+October+16,+2018).>Google Scholar
Schneider, E.C., Sarnak, D.O., Squires, D., Shah, A., and Doty, M.M., Mirror, Mirror: How the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally at a Time of Radical Change (New York: The Commonwealth Fund, 2017), available at <http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/files/publications/fund-report/2017/jul/schneider_mirror_mirror_2017.pdf> (last visited October 16, 2018).Google Scholar
Bovbjerg, R.R., Wiener, J.M., Housman, M., and Wiener, M., “State and Federal Roles in Health Care: Rationales for Allocating Responsibilities,” in Holahan, J., Weil, A., and Wiener, J.M., eds., Federalism In Health Policy (Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute, 2003): 2557.Google Scholar
Adler, L., Fiedler, M., and Gronniger, T., Effects of the Medicaid per capita cap included in the House-passed American Health Care Act (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 2017): at 312, available at <https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/es_chp_medicaidpercapitacap_adlerfiedlergronniger_51017.pdf> (last visited October 16, 2018).Google Scholar
Grant, H.M. and Hurley, J., Unhealthy Pressure: How Physician Pay Demands put the Squeeze on Provincial Health-Care Budgets, University of Calgary, School of Public Policy Research Papers, July 2013, available at <https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/grant-physician-income.pdf> (last visited October 16, 2018).Google Scholar
Marchildon, G.P., “The Three Dimensions of Universal Medicare in Canada,” Canadian Public Administration 57, no. 3 (2014): 362382, at 367.Google Scholar
See D. Morra, supra note 8: at 950-957.Google Scholar
Warne, D. and Frizzell, L.B., “American Indian Health Policy: Historical Trends and Contemporary Issues,” American Journal of Public Health 104, suppl. 3 (2014): S263S267, doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301682.Google Scholar
Gottlieb, K., “The Nuka System of Care: Improving Health through Ownership and Relations,” International Circumpolar Journal of Health 72 (2013), available at <http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ijch.v.72i0.21118> (last visited October 16, 2018).Google Scholar
Marchildon, G.P. and Torgerson, R., Nunavut: A Health System Profile (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013): at 9596.Google Scholar