According to (2016), the Canadian health care act was designed to deliver five fundamental objectives in the country's health care system. By definition, the act refers to the federal legislation that describes how a person within the borders of the country can access health care. At the same time the financial responsibility of these individuals is passed to the government of Canada for the provision of health services (Thompson, 2016). Intrinsically, the act was designed to enable the Canadians access the health services needed and not the health services that they can afford to pay. In this light, this paper will reflect upon the five fundamental objectives of the Act and the impact it might have on the health care profession.
The purpose of the Canadian health care law was to define the criterion to be used while allocating public funds to be used in the provision of health services to the public (Eggertson, 2005). The Canadian government is obligated to provide a cash contribution to each province in the country if the provinces meet the federal laws regarding the health care insurance plans available in the provinces. At the top of the requirement list is the Public administration of the medical insurance plan. The health care act dictates that a province must have a publicly administered health care insurance plan to be eligible for the cash contribution. Additionally, the public authority is to be held accountable for the spending of the funds allocated to the provincial government.
The central government undertakes annual audits to identify the correctness and the legality of the fund spending. Concerning the public administration of funds, the act allows for the designation or agency of receiving and spending the resources received from the federal government. In this case, the party that acts as the agent to receive or spend the funds on befalls of the legally accepted body must meet certain requirements. To begin with, the agent is obliged to give an account for the spending of the funds and any other assessment as it might prove necessary from the public authority. The public administration principle in the health care act restricts the number of insurance companies that can cover secured services (Matcha, 2003). In this way, the principle would affect a person willing to venture into the private health insurance industry.
The second criterion under which the federal governments decide if a province is eligible for the cash contribution is the comprehensiveness of the provincial health insurance plan. The comprehensiveness of the plan refers to whether the insurance plan is broad enough to cover the insured services provided by hospitals and the medical practitioners in the province. This principle of the act also dictates scenarios where the law permits extra services to be covered in the plan. As such, the principle states that the scheme should cater for the core health services that include hospitals, surgical and physician services. In this section of the Act, the law states that a hospital is allowed by the act to add dentist surgical services to the insured service list. However, it is vital to note that the dental services are mostly financed through private means (Eggertson, 2005). The need for comprehensiveness of the insurance plan would require that a person willing to operate a hospital in a given province learns all the required services there. For instance, in some regions, midwifery has been added to the list of services funded by the government.
According to section ten of the health care act, all individuals have to be covered for the province's insured health services and that the insurance plan is to treat all persons equally (Matcha, 2003). This principle discourages discrimination in the provision of health services under which any province that tolerates such would fall out of favor to receive funds from the federal government. However, the principle excludes persons insured by the provincial or federal government for their health services. These individuals include military personnel, federal inmates, and members of the police forces and a section of the aboriginal community living in the country. Following this, medical practitioners may face an ethical dilemma in instances where they receive patients who have not satisfied these requirements. Currently, this would include immigrants needing medical services, as the number of immigrants in the world continues to swell.
The fourth principle in the Canadian health care act addresses the issue of an insured person moving from one province to another within the Canadian borders. The law states that a person is eligible for the insured health services at home in any other territory or region for a maximum period of three months. After this, the health services of the person become the responsibility of their new home or province (Thompson, 2016). The portability provision allows for inter-province agreements that allow provinces to agree on the health services of the people living, working and or studying in different provinces.
The principle additionally defines how emergency cases are to be dealt with differences in the provincial provisions. Following this, the principle of portability would affect the delivery of medical services by the same hospital in different territories. To a health professional, such as a nurse, the portability act would affect the manner of handling patients from other areas. As per the cat, the hospital staff is required to follow the appropriate protocol, while handling patients from different territories.
Finally, according to the Canadian health care act, the health insurance plan of a province should meet the Accessibility criteria. The accessibility in this case means the ability of the insurance plan to offer the members of the province with the insured medical services in a uniform and equitable basis. This infers that the insured medical services are to be accessed by everyone despite their age, race, religion, or ethnic background. In addition to this, the principle requires that the provincial health insurance plan provides legally recognized and accepted systems of payment for the insured services offered by hospitals in a province (Matcha, 2003).
The accessibility principle also addresses that the provincial government is to compensate the hospital for insured services rendered to insured persons in the province.
The most interesting aspect concerning this principle, is its ability to address the issue of ‘extra billing' on the patient insured services. According to the principle, a province's cash contribution can be withheld following incidences of additional costs charged for medical services issued to insured patients. Following this, it is paramount for individuals in the nursing and medical profession to remain keen on the permissible patient billing rates for specific services to avoid penalties from the federal government (Matcha, 2003). As per the provisions of this provision, hospital administrators have to counter check if the cases of extra billing for their services meet the conditions required by the central government. It is only by so doing that the hospital management ensures compliance of both the hospital and the province at large in adhering to the accessibility provision of the health care act.
As a conclusion, the Canada health care act aimed at the provision health care to a large number of people in line with the need to provide increased access to health care services. Since the country is divided into various provinces with administrations, the Act considers the health care plans and provisions that determine whether they receive the benefits offered under the national system. The provinces that have won significant resources from central government are the one that offer numerous benefits to people who need health care.
References
Eggertson, L. (2005). Dosanjh to act on Canada Health Act violations. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 172(7), 862-862.
Thompson, V. D. (2016). Health and health care delivery in Canada.
Matcha, D. A. (2003). Health care systems of the developed world: How the United States' system remains an outlier. Westport, Conn: Praeger.
