Access to health care in Canada Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Access to health care in Canada - Essay Example Canadian health care is often referred to as Medicare. The official website explains the system as a collection of national health insurance programs, designed to ascertain that all the citizens have appropriate access to â€Å"medically necessary hospital and physician services†. The health care system is primarily framed by the Canada Health Act (CHA), a federal legislation which propagates conditions regarding the obtainment of funds for health care services by Canadian provinces and territories. CHA specifies the particular conditions and criteria which must be met by provincial and territorial health care insurance plans, which would ultimately translate into qualification for receiving the specified share from the federal cash contribution. Canadian federal government encourages the provincial government to co-operate and follow national standards by incentivizing the conformity. The federal government agrees to pay 50% of the cost for such provincially administered heal th care systems. There are five major principles which are included in CHA (Canadian-healthcare.org, 2004); Public Administration: Health insurance must be administered, at a provincial level, by a public authority which functions on a non-profit basis. The principles of accountability apply to all such service providers and their records are subjected to audits as well. Wolper (2011) has praised Canadian health care system by saying, â€Å"Canada indirectly provides healthcare services through a tax-funded public system which is accessible by all Canadians". The primary objective of Canadian health care policy is to â€Å"protect, promote and restore physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada† (Di, 2010). The purpose also includes facilitation and accessibility of the reasonable health services, without having to face any financial crisis by the citizens (Justice Law Website, 2012). The