In the U.S., citizens are expected to purchase their own health insurance, except in cases where individuals qualify for government-funded policies such as Medicare, Medicaid, or the Veteran's Health Administration.

Most often, insurance policies are provided through employers. This is an accidental policy that became standard after the War Stabilization Act of 1942. President Roosevelt and Congress were concerned about inflation during WWII, so they froze wages across the country. This prevented employers from using wages as a means of recruitment.

As a result, they started offering health insurance. There were already a few health insurance companies (such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield), but the landscape was unrecognizable from what it is today. For starters, there were non-profit insurance companies who insured anyone, regardless of their pre-existing conditions or health status.

Even though employer-sponsored healthcare was initially a recruitment tool, the practice stuck. 80 years later, and Americans are still largely relying on their employer to provide access to health insurance. Because each employer can set their own standards of care and price determinations, coverage and benefits vary greatly from employer to employer.

In order to decrease their own financial responsibilities, a lot of employers provide benefit packages that come with high deductibles and poor prescription coverage, leaving employees to pay outrageous out-of-pocket costs.

Lost among this heavily privatized health care system, approximately 33 million Americans were uninsured in 2019 — that's about 12% of the population, 5% of which are children. This figure includes 1 out of every 5 elderly citizens.

As alluded to previously, privatized healthcare also means that doctors are paid through private insurance companies who can also haggle or negotiate which services should be covered. This creates inequality among Americans because those who are employed by large companies are more likely to have affordable health insurance (better negotiating power), whereas small business owners won't have that kind of leverage.

But in a national health care system like Canada's, medical professionals bill the government, where the cost of services provided is heavily regulated. Also, the government sets drug prices, so pharmaceutical companies are limited in how much they can charge consumers. There is a trade off in this system, however, in that access to physician care can be slower. Wait times and overwhelmed healthcare personnel can be a frustrating experience for those in the Canadian system whereas in a private healthcare system, the government doesn't limit the amount of dollars that go into it so service levels are often superior. Yet patients almost universally appreciate that their drug prices are lower than in the United States.

There Is A Better Way