Medicare (Canada)
Medicare () is an unofficial designation used to refer to the publicly funded, single-payer health care system of Canada. Canada does not have a unified national health care system; instead, the system consists of 13 provincial and territorial health insurance plans that provides universal health care coverage to Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and certain temporary residents. These systems are individually administered on a provincial or territorial basis, within guidelines set by the federal government. The formal terminology for the insurance system is provided by the "Canada Health Act" and the health insurance legislation of the individual provinces and territories.
Two-tier healthcare
The public financing system, unofficially known as Medicare, consists of several different systems managed by each province or territory. The federal government distributes funds to the provinces for healthcare providing the provinces design their systems to meet certain criteria which they all do. Most people receiving care in Canada do not pay for their care. The medical provider gets paid a fixed fee for the care provided. The law bans the medical provider from charging patients to supplement their income from Medicare. Medical care providers can set their own fees that are higher than the Medicare reimbursement fee, but the patient must pay all the cost of care, not just the excess.