What Is The Difference Between The United States And Canada's Healthcare System

A country's healthcare system is essential to its population, preventing diseases and improving the overall health of its people. Many countries have different forms of healthcare that are available to their citizens. Depending on the country, the form of healthcare can be unobtainable or ineffective. While some countries are able to provide high-quality, accessible healthcare, not everyone is given the same opportunity. When examining the healthcare systems of the United States and Canada, it is interesting to note how their healthcare systems have qualities that intersect and diverge from one another. The cost of health insurance, healthcare policies, and the quality of healthcare in these countries present many similarities and differences.

The quality of their healthcare systems can be deemed comparable through the number of available general practitioners. In the United States, about 1⁄3 of the doctors are general practitioners, and in Canada, ½ of the doctors are general practitioners ("US vs. Canadian''). These healthcare systems have many general practitioners, and that significantly improves the overall health of their populations. Another similarity between both countries is that the two healthcare systems are ranked pretty high compared to other national healthcare systems ("US vs. Canadian''). Since both of these healthcare systems are ranked higher than many other countries' healthcare systems, they both have to have good quality. That being said, one is more effective than the other. The United States healthcare system has better quality than Canada's healthcare system in multiple ways. One way is the amount of medical equipment available. Canada's amount of medical equipment per person was significantly less than the United States. As stated by Goran Ridic: "In 1997 Canada's 53 MRIs meant one for every 572,000 citizens (contrast that figure to 2046 MRIs in the US, one for every 130,800 Americans)"(Ridic). These numbers show how patients are able to be treated faster in the United States because of the more available equipment, which then increases the efficiency of the United State's healthcare. Another way that the United State's healthcare is better in quality than Canada's is the advanced technology. The advanced technology the United States has makes it much more efficient when saving sick people and generally increases the health of its citizens quicker. Research from “Is Health Care in the US the Best?” exhibits: "The advanced medical milieu that Americans enjoy has led to the world's best cancer survival rates, a life expectancy for those over