The Canadian Healthcare System: A Political Cartoon Analysis

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The first source is a statement quoted by Dr. Delvaine of the Association of Physicians for Private Healthcare (APPH). In this statement, “ If you remove the shackles of government regulation and control you will immediately see improvement to the problems...”, Delvaine is stating his opinion of dismissing government control towards the Canadian healthcare systems in order to be regulated by competitive principles that grants the system innovation and development. He also stated that government regulated health care systems leads to inadequacy and stagnation. In his perspective, self-interest and competition are the principles that contribute to the growth and improvement of the socialized healthcare system. Delvaine shows a pursuit of conservative …show more content…

The cartoon presents an American man disproving the Canadian-based healthcare system despite not having to see the doctor because his health coverage from an insurance company withdrew just at the time when he was sick. As represented in the cartoon, capitalism or free marketing is the main economic system in the United States. Americans usually are in the right wing in the economic spectrum because of their individualistic ideology. On the other hand, Canada, found somewhat in the middle of the spectrum, values a more democratic socialism -- which concerns the government for the common good of its citizens. This capitalistic point of view of Americans greatly disputes the idea that the Canadian healthcare system has the government heavily involved. More Americans that support free market economy and laissez faire would believe that the government intervention infringes their personal freedom which includes their own healthcare system. Therefore, the cartoon also describes the irony that the Americans have a quite poor healthcare system because of the belief that the government should have a “hands-off” approach to any business, including health care. This perspective of the Americans on how to deal with health care is very unstable and inconsistent since they spend the most money with their insurance, nevertheless they get less in return. In contrast, the socialistic approach in Canada towards health care works well for both common and personal

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