Medical Service Plan in Canada Case Study 2022

Running head: MEDICAL SERVICE PLAN IN CANADA
MEDICAL SERVICE PLAN IN CANADA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes

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Executive summary
The purpose of the study is to analyses and evaluate the Canadian healthcare system. From
the study, it has been found that U.S healthcare system is comparatively better than the
Canadian healthcare system. Canadian healthcare system has some implications related to
scarcity of resources, ageing populations and so on. Advanced data analytics can improve the
overall healthcare system of Canada as well as mitigate these challenges. It has been
recommended that Canada government should implement proper innovation and advanced
technologies in order to improve the healthcare in the country.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Health care Challenges in Canada..............................................................................................3
Canadian Health care vs. U.S Health care.................................................................................5
Factors related to the challenges................................................................................................6
Recommendations......................................................................................................................8
Potential impact........................................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Medical Service plan or MSP is a health insurance plan for British Colombia residents
who are living in there for more than six months. This insurance is mandatory for people and
provides health care to all of the residents. MSP covers the costs of basic medical care within
Canada. The resident under MSP need to show BC Services Card to avail medical service and
health care benefits without the need of paying (Li et .al., 2017). However, Medical Service
plan does not cover dental care, routine vision care, prescription drugs or travel. International
students needs to pay $75 dollar per month to avail the Medical Service Plan in Canada.
Family Members are also eligible for MSP coverage if they stay in the province for more than
six months. Medical Service Plan will continue to charge the resident with health care
coverage fee if they leave Canada. From January 2020, the MSP premiums has been
eliminated therefore the members of MSP can continue having MSP service without paying
premium fees (Abspoel et.al., 2019). This plan covers all of the essential Medical services
including doctor fees and medical tests. Only eligible can quality for the coverage of MSP in
Canada. Eligible residents includes a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada, a
government supported refugee, a international student with study permit valid for more than
six months and a temporary worker with work permit for more than six month in the
province. To complete the MSP registration, the resident needs to visit an Insurance
Corporation of British Colombia driver licencing office and obtain a photo BC services card.
To get the proper benefits of Medical Service Plan, British California residents needs to fulfil
MSP obligations under Medicare Protection Act. To understand Medical Service Plan,
extensive study on the healthcare system of Canada is necessary which will be provide later
on.

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Health care Challenges in Canada
Canada is known as one of the most efficient Health care service provider around the
world. They provided cheap, universal and affordable Health care services to their people.
However, with the most innovative and sufficient Health care system, Canada is facing some
serious issues related to Health care (Nonoyama et.al.,2019).
Canada had been focusing to provide Health care to every residents with their
Medical Service Plan. Canada has trouble to the Health care of its aboriginal people. They
often end up living from isolations and or far from populations where the aboriginal Health
care issue in Canada begin (Miotto et.al., 2018). Logistic challenges lead Canada to a higher
incidence of specific disease. New Canada is refocusing to solve problems related to Health
care. Residents of Canada is having problems related to access to freshwater and higher
incidence of mental health issues (Ageron, Benzidia & Bourlakis, 2018). Additionally, the
Pan-American Organization has noted following as a challenge in Health care system of
Canada; care for chronic and mental disease, the aging of the population and the
corresponding need to assign more resources to elder people as well as high cost of medical
equipment and technologies are concern for Canada health care system.
Canada Health care system is also having challenges to provide medical emergency
services to the rural areas and the geographical disparity translates into health gaps. Another
major challenge to the Health care system is access to physician. Most of the people from
rural areas of Canada is having issues related to the access to the physician during emergency
situation which increases the life threats of these peoples (Pohjosenperä et.al .,2019). Another
challenge to the Health care system of Canada is that Medicare does not cover all types of
medical services. Some of the Health care providers of Canada does not comply with
Canadian Health care Act, which includes the necessary medical attention. Dental,
physiological services and Health care services are not included in the Health care plan.

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Aging of the populations is the next critical issue in the Health care system of Canada.
From recent studies, it has been forecasted that the Health care sector expenses as a
percentage of GDP will continue to rise over the next few decade which is a concern for the
Health care system (Majumder et.al.,2017). With advanced medical technologies, the ageing
trend is for decreasing fertility rates plus increasing life expectancy from 1971. Patients
demand for the medications, long-term care, home care and end life care is increasing and
this increase in expenses and decline in hours worked will represent financial problem in the
Health care sector (Martin et.al., 2018).
Canada is experiencing great dissatisfaction from the residents as found in recent
studies. The patients and aged people are greatly unsatisfied with the Health care service. The
primary reason for this dissatisfaction is access. Most of the residents of Canada have timely
access to excellent care for urgent medical situations such as cancer care, heart attack and
stroke however they are struggling to have proper timely medical care for normal diseases
which is a concern for the Health care sector. The government signed an agreement of
Can$5.5 billion to reduce the wait time and improve satisfaction of the people however this
does not seem to end the problem for them (Sutherland, 2019).
Canadian Health care vs. United States Health care
Health care service of Canada is almost similar to the Health care service of US
however the Canadian universal Health care service does not cover everything. In Canada,
regular visits to primary care doctors, medicines are covered under insurance plans such as
MSP and other and government offers tax credit to ease the burden of the people of Canada
(Ahmed et.al., 2016). Canadian support workers association (CANSWA) provides frontline
health community workers to ease the medical service to the international students of Canada
and community. The international student of Canada is provided with free Medical Service

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Plan without premium fees therefore their health service is secured by the government. These
workers provides personal trauma care to the community across Canada. Employers in
Canada just like US may offer private health insurance. Canadians can also purchase free to
purchase private coverage to cover from the cost of care which is not covered under universal
services in Canada. These insurance companies of Canada is non profit just like US.
However, from January 2020, the Canadians does not have to pay the premium of the
Medical service plans. Canadian Health care system is funded by single payer system and the
Health care coverage were publicly funded. Beyond the coverage limit, provinces are allowed
to provide insurance for additional services. In Canada, patients generally has free choice of
doctors however they require registration which varies with province and territory (Sinclair
et.al., 2018). Physicians fees are paid by the ministers of health and fees are paid based on fee
schedule. Patients does not have to pay physician payments in Canada as long as the Health
care service are connected to the universal Health care plan. Care provided by plans are
created in each area rather than a single unified health plan (Tuohy, 2019).
In the US, depending on the category of care, the employers pay most of the Health
care charges. U.S does not have specific units for frontline care workers, they are assigned
with hospital care and provides services to the community. U.S requires individuals to
reserve their own health care insurance. The international students of U.S pays their own
healthcare service charge. The government does not provide healthcare charge for the
international students. Private enterprises and private providers in US provide most of the
Health care insurances. Individual consumers have impact in the market in which it is based
on (Chawla et.al.,2016). Patient protection and Affordable Care Act 2010 stated that each of
individual of U.S should to secure a minimum essential coverage over employer or private
insurance. Primary care providers are provided to the people all across US. Patients have free
choice of doctors and the health insurance provider pays the fees of these doctors (French

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et.al.,2016). Patients are responsible for partial payments unless the patient is uninsured and
qualifies for waived or reduced fees. In US, the Health care system is private and differs from
the single payer government-funded system used in Canada.
From the analysis of Health care system of US and Canada, it can be noted that the
Health care system of US is superior to Canada and most of their Health care services are
provided privately. The primary reason behind this is as the United States spends much more
money on healthcare than Canada, on both a per-capita basis and as a percentage of GDP. In
2006, per-capita spending for health care in Canada was US$3,678; in the U.S., US$6,714.
The U.S. spent 15.3% of GDP on healthcare in that year; Canada spent 10.0%. US system
overall better Health care system compared to Canada.
Factors related to the challenges
The challenges of Health care of Canada can be overcome with analytics. Over the
past ten years, the total Health care spending in Canada has been increased by more than $10
billion particularly because the increase in population. The Canadian government is
concerned over the funding increase allocated to the Health care that have failed to result in a
measurable improvement in health status (El Morr & Ali-Hassan, 2019). As growing
consequence with this concern, growing interest in accountability in healthcare and other
sectors has been perceived and further, it is expected that the Canadian government should
allocate funds and resources more effectively to the Health care sector. Many of the
organisations lacks essential information’s and inconsistent data can impact on the Health
care sector. Additionally, most of the data are historical and there are still problems persist in
the Health care sector with these data problems (Nammour, Mansour & Danas, 2016).
Immediacy and urgency tends to characterize the issues of Health care with tendency towards
management style as the information’s available is typically limited and historic,

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management finds it difficult to solve challenges related to the Health care sector. In the late
1990s, software solutions began to develop and developed from research and development to
more advanced statistical techniques. This strategy can be used in any business and Health
care sector to identify any challenges in that sector. However, this strategy cannot be
undertook overnight and Health care sectors of Canada should adopt analytics based
approach to execute their mandates and deliver the needs of the people in the sector.
Canada offers universal access to Health care as a core foundation of their policy
however the system is vulnerable and weak with two traditional challenges faced by the
government of the country. The resources can be easily allocated and it does not meet the
need of the people or a particular population and the resources are scare.
Customarily, strategic planning for Canadian Health care system has been based on
studies of historic demands and many of the Health care agencies does not have proper
equipment’s and technologies to fight any pandemic diseases. In today’s context, managers
are always recommending predictive analysis to be used in Health care to overcome any
challenges that the Health care sector of Canada is currently facing. The rapid development
of analytic skills become more important as a source of good quality data available from
Health care initiatives and new generation electronic health record systems (Dobuzinskis &
Howlett, 2018). Health care executives of Canada will need better decision-making tools in
future to overcome the challenges of Health care. They will need to learn the new decision
making process to translate the new management requirement information into service
requirement and make accurate predictions to resource allocation and priorities in Health care
sector. A major contributing factor to the sustainability of Canadian Health care system will
be quality of decision support information provided to its boards and executives. Advanced
data collection analytics will help Canadian government to serve their people more
effectively and overcome any possible challenges in Health care.

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Recommendations
From the analysis, it can be perceived that Canadian health care system is world class
Health care service provider with some excellent health insurance service plans such as
Medical Service plan or MSP however they have several challenges in the Health care sector
related to resources allocation, wait time of people, insurance issues and so. Certain things
can be done in order to improve the overall Health care services of Canada. The failure of the
Health care system of Canada left the government with the very expensive but not worthy
Health care system that is delivering mediocre results. The government and Health care
agencies can improve the position of Health care sector of Canada by following the
mentioned, improving the overall system of Canada.
1. Innovation and integration
Health care personnel’s are still suffering from resource lag and functional problems as
they are operating in hospitals, social care, primary care and long-term entities all into
themselves. There are a lack of coordination present in the Health care system, which results
in lack of information sharing and serve common patients effectively. Ensuring best support
for the patients, the Health care agencies should improve the innovation and integration with
investments (Green, 2018).
2. Enhanced accountability
The Health care sectors of Canada needs to transition to accountability models focused on
outcomes rather than outputs, They should used advanced data analytics which will improve
their data collection and sharing across the Health care sector in Canada. The Health care
sector should be rewarded for quality and effectiveness rather than the amount of service
provided. Alignment of professional, system and patient goals will ensure that every

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individual Health care workers are providing their best to treat the Canadian, improving the
Health care situation massively.
3. Comprehensiveness
From the study, it has been found that many factors influences the health of a citizen as
well as impacts on the Health care sector. Better integration and comprehensiveness will aid
government of Canada to serve their people more efficiently well as well aid them to handle
the challenging situation of Health care sector. Canada should build more integrated and
innovative Health care system by which they will be able to meet all of the patients needs and
improve their overall health. Better integration of health service will serve to identify the
social determinants of health of Canada (Jackman, 2016).
4. Bold leadership
Bold leadership style from government and Health care sector is very essential to mitigate
the gaps of the Health care system and reduce the barriers between people and Health care
sectors. Canadians should accept the change to improve the overall Health care sector across
the country (Barilla, Shah & Rawson, 2019).
In addition to this, to improve the financial condition by which the Health care system can
be approved, the government should implement proper budgeting system in each and every
Health care system which will improve the operation and reduce the Health care costs
associated with it. It is also recommended that Canada should use both public and private
organisation just like the US to improve the overall efficiency (Tang et.al.,2018). Several
rules and regulations needs to be implemented in order to improve the overall condition of
Health care in Canada along with mitigation of these challenges.

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Potential impact
The healthcare of Canada is well equipped with innovative technologies and products,
assisting the economy of the country. Their healthcare service is on top of most of the
countries however failed to manage to be on top for some challenges in the healthcare sector.
As per recent survey, it has been observed that the Canadian healthcare system is assisting the
Canadians and refugees as well as international students by providing Medical Service Plans.
Further, healthcare sector of Canada impacted on the GDP of the country massively. It is
anticipated that overall health spending of Canada will represent 11.6% of the Canada’s
Gross Domestic Product. With advanced analytics, Canadian healthcare system will be able
to provide best care to the patients in the upcoming years and will be able to treat any
upcoming pandemics effortlessly. Cost effective healthcare services provides the best
services to the people across Canada. The healthcare system of Canada has provided quality
health services to the citizens and provided them with 24*7 medical services without any
discriminations. In the 2005, IPSOS-Reid Health report card 54% of the participants in a
survey graded ‘A’ aimed at easy access to emergency facilities, 62% of people graded
excellent for family doctor accessibility and 65% of them shared the degree of content for
walk-in clinic convenience and accessibility (Collier, 2016). The Canadian healthcare has
also outshined in the field of preventive medicine, with large focus on disease prevention.
The Canadian healthcare system also provides several campaigns by which the people can get
aware of the disease around the country. The high-level expert doctors of healthcare system
of Canada provided higher success rates compared to other third world countries. Canada is a
sporadic example of a country which effectively prohibits private insurers from providing
coverage for services outside the government program. That means, while private coverage
exists it is only obtainable for those medical goods and services that do not require coverage
by the CHA (Coyte & McKeever, 2016). Another key feature of the Canadian Healthcare is

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that there are no cost-sharing requirements for patients under provincial plans—no
deductibles or extra-billing. However, several downside has been perceived in the healthcare
service of Canada, which can affect its future growth. From recent study, it can be perceived
that Canada is high spender, achieving only average, and sometimes poor, performance
compared to other developed countries. These warnings reinforce the point that policymakers
in the Canada should exercise caution in proposing and implementing any major reforms to
the country’s health care system that are based on the type of plans that characterize Canada’s
health care system (Esmail & Barua, 2018).
Conclusion
On a concluding note, Canadian healthcare system is one of the best healthcare
service provider with excellent medical service plans. However, they got several drawbacks
in their healthcare system related to ageing population, resource scarcity, wait time,
dissatisfactions and so on. This can impact on innovation, technology, leadership and
comprehensiveness of the healthcare system. Further, it has been observed US healthcare
service are significantly better compared to the Canadian healthcare service as they use both
private and public cooperation in their service. Additionally, it has been perceived that data
plays a crucial role in healthcare sector and advanced data analytics can aid Canada to
overcome any issues related to the healthcare sector. Further, it has been recommended that
Canada government should imply new rules and regulation and upgrade existing technologies
to mitigate the lag in the healthcare sector. Further, it has been found that Canadian
healthcare system has potential impact on the economic condition of the country. From the
study, it has been found that healthcare system of Canada is still has mediocre performance
compared to other third world countries such as United States and United kingdom therefore
in order to overcome these issues related to healthcare, they should bring innovative medical
technologies which will improve the life expectancy of the people of Canada. Canadian

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government has CANSWA by which they provide frontline community workers to their
community however U.S does not have dedicated department for the healthcare workers.
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