US and Canadian health insurance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

US and Canadian health insurance - Essay Example Health insurance in the United States is failing patients and physicians alike.Competitive strategies have also failed their most ostensible goal--cost control.In contrast,Canada offers a model of a national health insurance plan that provides universal and comprehensive coverage,succeeds at restraining health care inflationIn this country 37 million uninsured face economic barriers to care, and the health of many suffers as a result. The "corporatization" of medical care threatens professional values with an unprecedented administrative and commercial intrusion into the daily practice of medicine.The big difference here in the US is that there are multiple insurance companies. In Canada you really only have one (one for each province) those offering extended insurance for things like private hospital rooms, vision, dental, etc.The next big difference is managed care. In regards to optometry, you can think of this as the insurance companies that only provide for well vision care cont acts and glasses. If there is a medical eye problem (i.e. a disease) they do not pay for the necessary care (generally), and those things should be billed to the major medical. They also pay much discounted fee's compared to medical, Medicare (gov't insurance for seniors) and private pay patients.Optometrists in the US also tend to directly bill the insurance companies, OD's in Canada tend to only bill their respective provincial insurance plans, veteran's affairs, or Indian affairs, while patient's not covered by the above are billed directly by paying cash. If those patients have supplemental vision insurance then they can submit a claim for reimbursement. When KHE talks about insurance discrimination he means that there are many insurance companies in the US that will not pay an optometrist for services performed that they will pay ophthalmologists for, even if the optometrist is licensed to do so in that state. There are some states that have "any willing provider" laws to prevent this, but it still occurs. However, the same thing happens in Canada: Take a look at the OHIP schedule of fee's for optometry, and then compare to that for ophthalmology. You'll find that many tests, procedures, and treatments that optometrist are licensed to perform are covered by OHIP if done by an ophthalmologist, but not an optometrist. However, it could be argued that is just as well since OHIP isn't exactly known for generous fees. In making a rational comparison of the Canadian and American health systems it is more reasonable to contrast service levels and costs of the systems rather than trading anecdotes. Canadians pay about 9% of national GDP to insure 100% of citizens in our single-payer system, compared with more than 14% of GDP to insure 85% of Americans. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that the average compound annual growth rate in U.S. health insurance costs has been 11.6% over the past five years. It is therefore not surprising that polling by Kaiser found that 75% of Americans were worried or very worried about the amount they would need to pay for health insurance in the future and that 63% were worried or very worried about not being able to afford health-care services. There is no question that restriction of supply with sub-optimal access to services has contributed to the lower cost of health care in Canada. However, a new approach of targeting investments to reduce waiting times combined with transparent reporting of wait times is having a substantial impact on access in the Canadian system. Canadians spend about 55% of what Americans spend on health care and have longer life expectancy, and lower infant mortality rates. Many Americans have access to quality health care. All Canadians have access to similar care at a considerably lower cost. The introduction of private insurance or private-for-profit health care for medically necessary services is not the answer to

AVA The Talking Elephant Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

AVA The Talking Elephant - Research Paper Example AVA The Talking Elephant is prospective business that seeks to market unique medicine dispensers. The medical dispenser is designed for infants and toddlers. Basically, our product is a plastic elephant toy with a built in medical dispenser. It also makes encouraging sound to motivate the children. The whole idea behind this product is the challenge for parents to give medicine to infants and toddlers. The product is designed to make the medicine giving time tear free and horror free for both the parents and the children. Market research is taken as the best tools to identify the best entry behavior of the business that will enable the business to survive avoid the huge competition. This paper seeks to present the best location for the medicine dispenser business to be located and the rationale for it. The paper will also present how the business will be organized internally. It is also imperative to analyze the external market based on PESTEL analysis to identify factors likely to i nfluence the business. This is done with the intention of making the most appropriate decision required for the success of the business. It is fundamental to our business to determine where or in what specific segment and geographic location our business will be conducted. In this context we defined the babies’ accessories segment and Utah State as a part of our Arenas. With some four million babies born in the U.S. every year (Baby Center Website), the babies’ products market seems a very promoting market to start our business at. Our medicine dispenser puts us in the baby care accessories segment. Statistics show that the global sales in this segment will sum-up a total of 66.8 billion dollars by the end of 2017 (See supporting figure no.5 in appendix). Consequently, it will be easier for us to reach one million dollars as revenue in our first year in business (knowing that our initial investment was