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The term medicare (in lowercase) ('s Universal Public Health Insurance System . The formal terminology for the insurance system is provided by the Canada Health Act and the health insurance legislation of the individual provinces and territories. However, the word has been used with respect to Canadian public health insurance since the early 1960s.http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_561563313/medicare.htmlOxford English Dictionary, second edition, edited by John Simpson and Edmund Weiner, Clarendon Press, 1989, twenty vol. IX, p.547, ISBN 0-19-861186-2 Under the terms of the ''Canada Health Act'', the Provinces and territories provide all residents with Health Insurance cards, which entitle the bearer to receive free medical care for almost all procedures. Health institutions are either private and non-profit (such as University Hospital s) or provincially run (such as Quebec 's CLSC system). Most all doctors are in private practice as entrepreneurs, as of 2002 they have been allowed to incorporate, and they bill the medicare system for their fees. The system is known as a "public system" due to its public financing, but is not a nationalized system such as the UK's NHS ; most services are provided by private enterprises, such as clinics or doctors who are paid a Fee-per-visit . Canadians have free choice of doctors and can change doctors at any time they wish. CBC Health Care Private verses Public The . Most services are provided by private enterprises, and doctors are not on a government salary, but operate as independent businesses. CBC Health Care Private verses Public SERVICES COVERED Canada's healthcare system provides diagnostic, treatment and preventive services to every Canadian regardless of income level or station in life. Each province in Canada manages its own healthcare system. For example, each province issues its own healthcare identification cards and negotiates with the federal government for money to cover healthcare costs. Each province may also provide its own prescription drug benefit plan. However, drug plans are provincial plans, not a requirement of the Canada Health Act.Citizenship and Immigration Canada's Fact Sheet: Health Services in Canada: Information for Newcomers Provincial prescription drug benefit plans may be, adjusted for income, with a higher co-payment required or exclusion for those with higher personal incomes. The prescription drug benefit is usually comprehensive and rarely excludes a medication, though approval (adding the drug to the provincial formulary) may result in a medication being available in one province long before it is available in another, or never being funded. This is especially true of expensive drugs and poorer provinces, e.g., Avastin . Medications that are excluded may be approved under an "exceptional drug" program.[http://www.drugcoverage.ca/p_rejected_claims.asp?language=1 Dental Care is not covered by any government insurance plans. Canadians rely on their employers, individual private insurance, or simply pay cash themselves for dental treatments. The range of services for vision care coverage varies widely among the provinces. Generally, vision care is covered (cataract surgery, diabetic vision care, some laser eye surgeries required as a result of disease); the main exception is the standard vision test, which patients pay for if they have their eyes tested more than once within a two-year period. In Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan you are charged for every vision test that is taken. Naturopathic services are covered in some cases, but homeopathic services are generally not covered. Chiropractic is partially covered in some provinces. Cosmetic procedures are not typically covered. Psychiatric services (provided by physicians) are covered, fee-for-service psychology services outside of hospitals or community based mental health clinics where the practitioners are on salary are not. OPINIONS ON MEDICARE Polling data in the last few years have consistently cited medicare as the most important political issue in the minds of Canadian voters. Along with Peacekeeping , the CBC ran a poll that found medicare to be one of the most defining characteristics of Canada. It has increasingly become a source of controversy in Canadian politics. Due to massive healthcare transfer payment cuts at the hands of recent federal governments, and the resulting shortfalls in provincial government budgets, combined with rising costs due to an aging population, quality of care provided has decreased through the past two decades. |
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