Evaluating Healthcare Systems by Measuring Health in Canada and the United States
Location
SU-215
Department
Economics
Abstract
Medicare for All is a popular term advocated in the United States, supporting a single-payer or universal healthcare system. Canada is often used as a reference for health policy improvements in the United States due to its higher-performing health measures, lower health expenditure, and providing equal access for its citizens as a universal healthcare system. However, Canada is criticized for its long wait times for medical services that result from its healthcare system. It is important to evaluate different measures of the country to see how different factors of their healthcare system impact the health of their population. This paper aims to analyze objective measures such as life expectancy and infant mortality rate as initial comparisons in Canada and the United States. It also explores additional health measures to evaluate their impact on health status. Our dataset was composed of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS): 2017-2018 for Canada, which had 89,629 responses, and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) in 2017-2018 for the United States, which had 118,659 responses. To perform our analysis using the survey data, we assign perceived health status as our outcome variable and the remaining variables, such as age, sex, and having asthma, as our explanatory variable. Our variable of unmet needs is measured due to wait times in Canada and costs in the United States. We perform ordered probit regression using these measures and then calculate the estimated marginal effects. To evaluate how unmet needs impact health status in the countries, we compare Canada’s marginal effect of unmet needs due to waiting times with the United States' marginal effect of unmet needs due to costs. This paper starts by comparing common health measures in the countries, showing Canada’s health outcomes performing higher than those of the United States. It continues by presenting results that do not indicate Canada’s drawback of long wait times being unfavorable compared to the United States' unmet needs due to costs. Based on our evidence, we conclude that implementing health policies similar to those in Canada in the United States would not be supported by our research.
Faculty Sponsor
Scott Hegerty
Evaluating Healthcare Systems by Measuring Health in Canada and the United States
SU-215
Medicare for All is a popular term advocated in the United States, supporting a single-payer or universal healthcare system. Canada is often used as a reference for health policy improvements in the United States due to its higher-performing health measures, lower health expenditure, and providing equal access for its citizens as a universal healthcare system. However, Canada is criticized for its long wait times for medical services that result from its healthcare system. It is important to evaluate different measures of the country to see how different factors of their healthcare system impact the health of their population. This paper aims to analyze objective measures such as life expectancy and infant mortality rate as initial comparisons in Canada and the United States. It also explores additional health measures to evaluate their impact on health status. Our dataset was composed of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS): 2017-2018 for Canada, which had 89,629 responses, and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) in 2017-2018 for the United States, which had 118,659 responses. To perform our analysis using the survey data, we assign perceived health status as our outcome variable and the remaining variables, such as age, sex, and having asthma, as our explanatory variable. Our variable of unmet needs is measured due to wait times in Canada and costs in the United States. We perform ordered probit regression using these measures and then calculate the estimated marginal effects. To evaluate how unmet needs impact health status in the countries, we compare Canada’s marginal effect of unmet needs due to waiting times with the United States' marginal effect of unmet needs due to costs. This paper starts by comparing common health measures in the countries, showing Canada’s health outcomes performing higher than those of the United States. It continues by presenting results that do not indicate Canada’s drawback of long wait times being unfavorable compared to the United States' unmet needs due to costs. Based on our evidence, we conclude that implementing health policies similar to those in Canada in the United States would not be supported by our research.