Research Proposal Example: The U.S vs Canada Health Care Systems

Introduction

Admit it! At some point in a given time, all of us have been subjected to health care attention. Every individual regardless of race, tribe, age, and occupation as well income status deserves to be healthy. This, therefore, means that healthcare should be taken as a human right. The arrangement through which a patient receives the Medicare varies from one person to another, one organization to other and from nations to nations. The leadership of an ambitious country knows too well that it must invest in policies and arrangements that see every citizen covered in healthcare plans. The healthcare is guided by the established principles of keeping the citizens healthy, treating those who have fallen sick and ensuring that families that have had the sick member(s) are not financially crippled by accumulated medical bills and other closely related expenses (Chawla et al. 2016). Healthcare system, therefore, encompasses individual components of medical practitioners, institutions, and facilities that offer healthcare solutions to people within a given geographical area. Statement of the problem

The benefits of having successful healthcare systems in a country are far-reaching. A wealthy nation is gauged by its ability to take care the health needs of its citizens. I seek to research on the healthcare systems and do a comparative analysis of healthcare systems in the United States versus Canada to establish the best practices, challenges facing the healthcare, areas of improvement and form a benchmark basis for developing quality healthcare systems. I am motivated to the find out the pillars that have seen healthcare systems succeed in the United States and Canada. In particular, the following research questions will be addressed:

Who finances healthcare systems in the United States and Canada?

What is the scope does the healthcare systems cover?

Are there discriminations in the provisions of the healthcare services?

How viable are the medical systems in the two countries?

Where do the two nations source medical personnel for their large population?

What are the challenges facing healthcare systems in the two countries?

Objectives

The primary intent of this research is to find out how the two nations resolve issues relating to discriminations in the healthcare facilities, the fundamental principles governing the healthcare systems in the United States and Canada. The principles imply the organizational structure of the systems, the responsible authorities and the main beneficiaries of the healthcare schemes. I will also seek to address the following sub-objectives;

(i) To find out the sources of finance of the healthcare facilities.

(ii) To identify the beneficiaries of the healthcare systems.

(iii) To find out solutions to the underlying challenges facing the healthcare systems.

The findings of this research will be resourceful to the two countries as well global nations seeking to improve their healthcare systems. The research will highlight probable solutions to the challenges and suggest areas that require improvement.

Preliminary Literature Review

Squires and Anderson (2015) researched on the U.S healthcare systems where they focused mainly on the performance, strengths, funding, weaknesses, and factors that hinder or promote healthcare services. They compare it relative to Canada and other European nations. There are key aspects of healthcare that past researchers have not addressed. These aspects form the basis of my research objective listed above. Methodology

The main methodology for this research will be the case study. There will be in-depth examination of all healthcare aspects and parameters surrounding patients care, financing, operations, insurance, referrals, and service charter among others. I will carry out wide literature review on various research cases based on the health care systems in the U.S and Canada. The study will run from November 2017 to April 2018.

References

Squires, D., & Anderson, C. (2015). US health care from a global perspective: spending, use of services, prices, and health in 13 countries. The Commonwealth Fund, 15, 1-16.

Schieber, G. J., Poullier, J. P., & Greenwald, L. M. (2017). Health care systems in twenty-four countries. Health Affairs.

Blendon, R. J., & Taylor, H. (2017). Views on health care: public opinion in three nations. Health Affairs.

Chawla, A., Westrich, K., Matter, S., Kaltenboeck, A., & Dubois, R. (2016). Care pathways in US healthcare settings: current successes and limitations, and future challenges. The American journal of managed care, 22(1), 53-62.

Woolhandler, S., Campbell, T., & Himmelstein, D. U. (2003). Costs of health care administration in the United States and Canada. New England Journal of Medicine, 349(8), 768-775.

Wolf-Maier, K., Cooper, R. S., Kramer, H., Banegas, J. R., Giampaoli, S., Joffres, M. R., ... & Thamm, M. (2004). Hypertension treatment and control in five European countries, Canada, and the United States. Hypertension, 43(1), 10-17.