Profit-making in Healthcare: A Comparative Analysis

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“ America’s healthcare system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.” There are many forms of profit making in health care. These activities appear in different ways in Canada and in the United States. For an example, this works in Canada in a context of universal healthcare while in the U.S it operates in a free market context. Canada is subtly moving away from universal healthcare, towards free market healthcare. The balance of private and public options in the U.S favour private options: “ In 2014, large sectors of the health care landscape are corporatized” (Churchill & Perry, 2014: 409). This is problematic for the conflict of interests that arise because “ Special interest groups are motivated not by any obligations to physicians or …show more content…

While Canada is formally committed to universal healthcare, actual policies “ inequitably [distribute] the social determinants of health” (Raphael, 2002: 1). Canada undermines its own universal health care system by passing on and perpetuating inequalities based on better access by the more affluent classes. We see this in an even more intense form in the United States where people often go bankrupt due to the expenses of healthcare and insurance related costs. People in the U.S are beginning to realize this as legislators declined to scrap the Affordable Care Act as people such as Trump, offer no serious alternatives to people suffering under the current healthcare system. As the only developed economy with a mostly free market healthcare system, the U.S demonstrates how inequality is a serious social problem with serious costs. The free market system has survived longer in the U.S than elsewhere because of ideological boost from neoliberalism. This ideology promotes free market ideals and direct attention away from inequalities by blaming individuals for their situations. Due to Canada’s bordering the U.S, we have found ourselves increasingly following in their footsteps in regards to healthcare. This attitude has some influence in Canada, especially among conservatives and so we should be aware of it and also its flaws implications and

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