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.
Comparison of the healthcare systems in Canada and the United States
Some economists who have studied proposals for universal healthcare worry that the consumer driven healthcare movement will reduce the social redistributive effects of insurance that pools high-risk and low-risk people together. This concern was one of the driving factors behind a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, informally known as "Obamacare", which limited the types of purchases which could be made with HSA funds. For example, as of January 1, 2011, these funds can no longer be used to buy over-the-counter drugs without a medical prescription.