That's why I'm so impressed by a participant at last night's practice mmi. He shared a way to systemically tackle questions related to Canadian health care. Namely, by addressing the "5 principles":
- public administration,
- comprehensiveness,
- universality,
- portability, and
- accessibility
To borrow the summary from the The New Press, they mean:
- Public administration avoids the profiteering and thus the additional 20-30 percent overhead and profit associated with for-profit insurance companies. As with US Medicare the overhead for public health insurance is much less—4-5 percent.
- Comprehensiveness means all necessary services are covered. Unless everything is covered, potential savings are lost if patients delay preventative care or necessary care as a result of financial concerns.
- Universality means everyone is covered. Covering everyone allows allocation of resources based on need of the community rather than profitability. This kind of allocation of dollars allows for long range goals and planning improving the health of a neighborhood, a community, a city, a state, a nation.
- Portability means you can take it with you. US citizens stay in unwanted jobs just to keep their health insurance. Reduced productivity of people who hate their jobs can stagnate an economy. Canadians are free to follow their dreams, because coverage is guaranteed.
- Accessibility means freedom from economic, geographic and bureaucratic barriers to health care.
Try to apply these principles when answering this question:
"How would the 2010 Winter Olympics affect the health care of BC residents?"
Hi,
ReplyDeleteCould you describe how you can systemically answer questions related to Canadian health care by addressing the 5 principles of CHA?
Thanks in advance
Hi Andy,
ReplyDeleteI would advise against memorizing an "algorithm" to answer any of the interview questions. The tips and advises on this site is just so that people have a general idea of how to tackle the questions especially when they feel stuck.
With that disclaimer, let's talk briefly about questions related to Canadian health care. Whenever you see such questions, you can think about whether these 5 principles are affected. For the Olympics example, you would remark:
comprehensiveness: with an influx of foreigners, can the hospitals still provide adequate care to cover all the health care needs of BC residents? For example, would resources be pulled into emergency rooms and away from long-term care units?
universality: if we deny foreigners access to medicine, or if we charge them extra fees, would that impede this principle? If the provincial budget is directed away from health care to cover the cost of building Olympics venues, would BC residents have to wait longer? Would coverage of some treatments decrease?
Likewise, you can use or not use the other principles for your answer.
Knowing these principles does not mean you have a ready-made algorithm for all questions health care related. It's just a framework to help you get started.