Healthcare System Assignment

Running head: HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
COMPARISON OF HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
-Singapore, United States and Canada
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
Introduction:
Healthcare Systems are affected by its funding, funding system, GDP growth and
spent of healthcare,and its performance can be analyzed through indicators like maternal
mortality rate, infant mortality rate and life expectancy at birth as well as through health
system performance indicators like prevalence of low birth weight, obesity, diabetes, asthma,
hypertension and cancer. Additionally, efficient management of quality and safety of
healthcare systems ensures the providence of healthcare, and maintains the standards of
efficient system. The aim of the report is to compare the healthcare system and its governance
between Singapore, United States of America and Canada. Singapore has been considered to
provide cheap and good quality healthcare to its citizens (Ranked 6th by World Health
Organization) (Frakt & Carroll, 2017). The Hybrid Model used by Singapore, makes it one of
the best healthcare systems (Tan, 2017). A comparative analysis of the key aspects affecting
healthcare systems and performance indicators can allow to identify the different aspects
where developments can be further made to the healthcare systems of Singapore, to ensure an
improved care for its citizen, and maintain the quality and efficiency of the care.
Funding, Funding System, GDP spent on health:
Funding:
As of 2017, reports show the Singapore government spends USD 381 per capita on
healthcare (Klein, 2017). Lim, (2017) points out that the Singapore government spends a
third of the healthcare cost, while the citizen pays two thirds of the expense. An estimated
amount of USD 30 billion is invested by the government towards Medifund. The funding is
ranked fifth for public funds (Bai et al., 2012).

2HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
The expense of the United States Government on healthcare costs, per capita is
estimated to be USD 5,960 out of the total per capita expense of USD 9,267 (and the citizen
paying the rest USD 3,307. This placed US above Canada and United Kingdom in healthcare
funding (Almberg, 2016).
The spending by the Canadian government is estimated to be about USD 2,209 per
capita, out of the total cost of USD 4,095, with the citizens paying the rest of USD 1,886. The
total investment of the government adds up to about USD 68.5 billion (Barua, Palacois &
Emes, 2017).
Funding System:
Singapore employs a mixed funding system for healthcare, using multiple tiers of
protection to ensure the providence of healthcare for every Singaporeans. The system
includes 4 levels of funding, with Subsidies acting as the first safety net that allows
affordability of healthcare, followed by the next safety net, the Medisave that allows the
building of savings for smaller healthcare expenses. The third line of protection is provided
by Insurance schemes (like MediSheild Life, Integrated Shield Plans, ElderSheild and
ElderSheild supplement) that support large medical expense, and long term medical care. The
final tier of protection is provided by Medifund that assist the needy citizens to meet their
healthcare costs (Moh.gov.sg, 2018).

3HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
Figure 1: Funding levels on healthcare in Singapore; source: (Moh.gov.sg, 2018).
Government Funding for healthcare in US is through programs like Medicare and
Medicaid (Trivedi, 2018). The healthcare professionals are paid through private insurance,
government insurance and personal payment by citizens in the form of out of pocket funding.
Private insurances are also subsidized by the government, and are purchased by corporations
to benefit the employees, and exempted from taxation. The Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (PPACA) or Affordable Care Act (ACA) is aimed to improve both
availability and affordability of healthcare service to citizens (HHS.gov, 2018). Apart from
Medicare (for the healthcare of elderly, disabled and long term treatment) and Medicaid (for
people with disability or those below the poverty level), the government also has other
programs like State Children’s Health Insurance Program (for uninsured children), Tricare
(for military personnel and their families), Veterans Health Administration (VHA) (for
military veterans) and Indian Health Service (for American Indians and Alaskan natives).
Healthcare funding in Canada is through Canada Health Transfer from the federal
government that funds provinces and territories, and Fiscal Transfer for additional federal
funding (Canada.ca., 2018). The finances are provided via taxation system apart from lottery