Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi, I'm Mary Alexander from Home Instead Senior Care and today I'm talking about the Canada
Health Act, also known as Medicare. According to Health Canada, Canada's publicly-funded
healthcare system is an interlocking set of ten provincial and three territorial health
insurance plans that provide universal coverage for medically necessary healthcare services.
These health services are provided on the basis of need rather than the ability to pay.
The Canada Health Act includes five guiding principles: Public Administration: the provincial
and territorial plans must be administered and operated on a non-profit basis by a public
authority accountable to the provincial or territorial government, Comprehensiveness:
the provincial and territorial plans must insure all medically necessary services provided
by hospitals, medical practitioners and dentists working within a hospital setting. Universality:
the provincial and territorial plans must entitle all insured persons to health insurance
coverage on uniform terms and conditions. Accessibility: the provincial and territorial
plans must provide all insured persons reasonable access to medically necessary hospital and
physician's services without financial or other barriers. Portability: the provincial
and territorial plans must cover all insured persons when they move to another province
or territory within Canada and when they travel abroad. Services outside Canada may be limited
and require prior approval. Any person who is an official resident of any province or
territory is eligible for Canadian Medicare. Tourists, transients or visitors to a province
are not eligible to receive healthcare benefits. The thirteen provincial and territorial health
insurance plans are required to provide insured persons with coverage of health services,
including hospital services provided to in-patients or out-patients if the services are medically
necessary for the purpose of maintaining health, preventing disease or diagnosing or treating
an injury, illness or disability. They must also cover medically required physician's
services rendered by medical practitioners. Many provinces and territories also offer
additional benefits including prescription drugs, dental care, eye exams, chiropractic
and ambulance services. Conversely, a number of services provided by hospitals and physicians
that are not considered medically necessary are not covered, but may be available at an
extra cost. Some examples include preferred hospital accommodations, private duty nursing
and cosmetic services. Be sure to visit the Health Canada site at hc-sc.gc.ca for general
information and links to your particular province or territory's health information.