Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with medical costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and personal care services. The Health Insurance Association of America describes Medicaid as "a government insurance program for persons of all ages whose income and resources are insufficient to pay for health care." Medicaid is the largest source of funding for medical and health-related services for people with low income in the United States, providing free health insurance to 74 million low-income and disabled people as of 2017. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments and managed by the states, with each state currently having broad leeway to determine who is eligible for its implementation of the program. States are not required to participate in the program, although all have since 1982. Medicaid recipients must be U.S. citizens or qualified non-citizens, and may include low-income adults, their children, and people with certain disabilities. Poverty alone does not necessarily qualify someone for Medicaid.
Medicare is a national health insurance program in the United States, begun in 1966 under the Social Security Administration (SSA) and now administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). It provides health insurance for Americans aged 65 and older, younger people with some disability status as determined by the Social Security Administration, as well as people with end stage renal disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Medicare is funded by a combination of a payroll tax, beneficiary premiums and surtaxes from beneficiaries, and general U.S. Treasury revenue.
Healthcare in Canada is delivered through thirteen provincial and territorial systems of publicly funded health care, informally called Medicare. It is guided by the provisions of the Canada Health Act of 1984, and is universal.
Diane Marleau, was a Canadian politician. She represented the riding of Sudbury in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 2008, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Jean Chrétien. Marleau was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Foothills Medical Centre (FMC) is the largest hospital in Alberta and is located in the city of Calgary. It is one of Canada's most recognized medical facilities as well as one of the leading hospitals in Canada, providing advanced healthcare services to over two million people from Calgary, southern Alberta, southeastern British Columbia and southern Saskatchewan. Formerly operated by the Calgary Health Region, it is now under the authority of Alberta Health Services and part of the University of Calgary Medical Centre.
Medicare Part D, also called the Medicare prescription drug benefit, is an optional United States federal-government program to help Medicare beneficiaries pay for self-administered prescription drugs through prescription drug insurance premiums. Part D was originally proposed by President George W. Bush in 2003 and enacted as part of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 and went into effect on January 1, 2006.
Tricare, formerly known as the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS), is a health care program of the United States Department of Defense Military Health System. Tricare provides civilian health benefits for U.S Armed Forces military personnel, military retirees, and their dependents, including some members of the Reserve Component. Tricare is the civilian care component of the Military Health System, although historically it also included health care delivered in the military medical treatment facilities.
Avalon Roberts, is a prominent Alberta healthcare advocate and political activist. She was born in Newfoundland, has lived in six of Canada's provinces, and has resided in Calgary since 1980.
Calgary currently has four major adult acute care hospitals; the Foothills Medical Centre, the Peter Lougheed Centre, the Rockyview General Hospital and the South Health Campus and a children's acute care hospital; Alberta Children's Hospital, all running under the auspices of Alberta Health Services. The medical helicopters operate under the auspices of the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society. The Sheldon M. Chumir Centre, the Richmond Road Diagnostic and Treatment Centre (RRDTC), Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, Tom Baker Cancer Centre,Grace Women's Health Centre, Carewest, and the Glenmore Auxiliary Hospital are other medical facilities operating in the city, each providing a variety of care. The University of Calgary Medical Clinic also operates in partnership with the Calgary Health Region, and is located at the Foothills Medical Centre. The four largest Calgary hospitals have a combined total of more than 2,164 beds, and employ over 11,500 people. Health care is consistently ranked in national polls as a significant political concern, both at a federal and provincial level.
Alberta Municipal Affairs is a ministry of the Executive Council of Alberta. Its major responsibilities include assisting municipalities in the provision of local government, administering the assessment of linear property in Alberta, administering a safety system for the construction and maintenance of buildings and equipment, and managing Alberta's network of municipal and library system boards.
Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) are programs within the United States that provide comprehensive health services for individuals age 55 and over who are sufficiently frail to be categorized as "nursing home eligible" by their state's Medicaid program. Eligibility for PACE requires that individuals be 55 years old or older, certified by the state to need nursing home-level care, reside near a PACE program, and able to live safely in the community. Services include primary and specialty medical care, nursing, social services, therapies, pharmaceuticals, day health center services, home care, health-related transportation, minor modification to the home to accommodate disabilities, and anything else the program determines is medically necessary to maximize a member's health.
Health insurance in the United States is any program that helps pay for medical expenses, whether through privately purchased insurance, social insurance, or a social welfare program funded by the government. Synonyms for this usage include "health coverage", "health care coverage", and "health benefits". In a more technical sense, the term "health insurance "is used to describe any form of insurance providing protection against the costs of medical services. This usage includes private insurance and social insurance programs such as Medicare, which pools resources and spreads the financial risk associated with major medical expenses across the entire population to protect everyone, as well as social welfare programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which both provide assistance to people who cannot afford health coverage.
Medicare Advantage is a type of health insurance plan that provides coverage within Part C of Medicare in the United States. Medicare Advantage health plans pay for managed health care based on a monthly fee per enrollee (capitation), rather than on the basis of billing a fee for each medical service provided, which is the way Original Medicare Parts A and B work. Most such plans are health maintenance organizations (HMOs) or preferred provider organizations (PPOs). Medicare Advantage plans finance at a minimum the same medical services as "Original" Parts A and B Medicare finance via FFS. Public Part C plans, including Medicare Advantage plans, also typically finance additional services, including additional health services, and most importantly include an annual out of pocket (OOP) spend limit not included in Parts A and B. A public Part C Medicare Advantage beneficiary must first sign up for both Part A and Part B of Medicare in order to choose Part C.
The Saskatchewan doctors' strike was a 23-day labour action exercised by medical doctors in 1962 in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan in an attempt to force the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation government of Saskatchewan to drop its program of universal medical insurance. The strike was from July 1, the day the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act took force, to July 23.
Healthcare reform in the United States has a long history. Reforms have often been proposed but have rarely been accomplished. In 2010, landmark reform was passed through two federal statutes enacted in 2010: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), signed March 23, 2010, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which amended the PPACA and became law on March 30, 2010.
Hospice care is a type of care and philosophy of care that focuses on the palliation of a chronically ill, terminally ill or seriously ill patient's pain and symptoms, and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs. In Western society, the concept of hospice has been evolving in Europe since the 11th century. Then, and for centuries thereafter in Roman Catholic tradition, hospices were places of hospitality for the sick, wounded, or dying, as well as those for travelers and pilgrims. The modern concept of hospice includes palliative care for the incurably ill given in such institutions as hospitals or nursing homes, but also care provided to those who would rather spend their last months and days of life in their own homes. The first modern hospice care was created by Cicely Saunders in 1967.
Albert Ernest Archer was a Canadian physician and political activist. He is best known for his early efforts to promote national and provincial public health care systems. Some have argued that he deserves as much recognition as Tommy Douglas for the establishment of medicare in Canada.
The Alberta Health Insurance Act was an act passed by the Government of Alberta in February 1935. It was the first Canadian health insurance act to provide some public funding for medical services, and as such is considered to be an early step toward the provision of medicare in Canada.
The Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act (HIDS) is a statute passed by the Parliament of Canada in 1957 that reimbursed one-half of provincial and territorial costs for hospital and diagnostic services administered under provincial and territorial health insurance programs. Originally implemented on July 1, 1958, with five participating provinces, by January 1, 1961, all 10 provinces were enlisted. The federal funding was coupled with terms and conditions borrowed from the Saskatchewan Hospital Services Plan, introduced in 1947 as the first universal hospital insurance program in North America. In order to receive funding, services had to be universal, comprehensive, accessible and portable. This stipulation was dropped in 1977 with the Established Programs Financing Act and then reinstated in 1984 in the Canada Health Act. Widely acknowledged as the foundation for future developments in the Canadian health care system, the HIDS Act was a landmark example of federal-provincial cooperation in post-war Canada.
