Health Care as a Social Good

Question: Compare and contrast the UK healthcare system with US? Answer: Although availability of advanced health care services is high in both UK and USA, the systems for providing such services are completely different in both countries (Craig, 2014). In UK the government is responsible for providing health care services. On the contrary, health care system of US depends on private organizations. In UK, although everyone can access the services provided by NHS, often patients require to wait for long time for accessing the facilities (Ham, 2012). In US, services provided by the organizations in health care sector are expensive and thus every one cannot get services of same quality. However in US patients do not require to wait for treatment. In this essay heath care systems of UK and US are analyzed to understand the similarities and differences between both models. Comparative analysis of the health care systems of UK and US is conducted on basis of some features of systems followed in both countries. The features include main healthcare service provid ers in both countries ,access to health care by common people, insurance policies in both countries, presence of infrastructure and patients attitude in both countries. The essay also contains brief overview of the health care systems in UK and US. Financial resources required for offering health care services are mainly provided by the Government in UK (Freeman et al., 2014). The government collects the fund from taxes paid by common people. As Government agency, NHS, is the main provider of health care services, most of these services can be accessed at free of cost by citizens of the country. In England voluntary insurances cover about 13% of common citizens (Hoffman and Emanuel, 2013). However such insurances are used for accessing services provided by private organizations. In case of UK, providers of primary care are considered as first point of contact for accessing health care services. Although the primary care services are provided by self employed general practitioners , other professional like pharmacists and dentists are also categorized as primary care providers (Hunter and Perkins, 2014). The patients can a only access emergency health care services if the problems are not resolved by primary service providers. E mergency services can also be accessed in case of accidents. In UK the practices for providing community based care is becoming more popular. The patients who require long treatments can access such facilities. Community care services are also provided to those patients who are not suffering from critical diseases or do not require any emergency treatment. Quality of the services provided by main health care provider, NHS, is evaluated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). CQC evaluates the activities of NHS and provides assistance to the organization for improving quality of its existing services (Hunter and Perkins, 2014). The Government of UK also focuses on improving quality of the services provided by private organizations. The activities of private organizations in UK are monitored and assessed by CQC. Foundation Trusts of NHS are regulated by Monitor. In UK heath protection activities of common people are conducted by Heath Protection Agency (HPA).NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) is responsible for assessing the medicine and treatment policies of NHS. The organization is also responsible for modifying the existing policies. Analysis on the health care sector indicates that the quality of services provided by this sector is closely monitored by different agencies of UK government. As a result, quality of the services is maintained. However the patients get less freedom for choosing their treatment policies. Most of the services in health care sector are provided by private organizations of US. As most of the organizations of US health care sector are privately owned, per capita spending of people in US for accessing health care services is more than that of any other countries. Liu et al., (2013) states that a market based approach is used for providing health care services in US. As these services are costly , most of the citizens of US empathizes on buying insurance policies . Expenses on insurance account for major portion of the total spending on health services. In US accessibility of health services depends on financial capacity of a patient, accessibility of health services is not ensured. Although quality of services is not maintained in all cases, availability of innovative medical facilities is high in US. In US very few of total population is unable to buy any insurance policies (McConkey and White, 2012). In US, often large number of deaths is caused due to lack of insurance policies. Although accessibility of medical services in US is limited by sending capability of a patient, patients have more freedom for choosing their treatment policies. Currently in US health care monitoring and regulatory policies are not efficient to standardize the services provided by different organizations in medical sector (Shi and Singh, 2012). However, the federal government is developing policies for developing a centralized system for health care monitoring and quality assurance. Analysis between the healthcare systems of UK and US reflects that both systems are different from each other. In UK medical services are accessed by everyone due to implementation of social insurance policies of NHS. In US, the number of people who are not covered by insurance policies cannot accesses medical facilities of high quality. As in UK, government is responsible for providing health services, selection of treatment policies are not decided by patients. In US, market based approach is used for provoking health care services. As a result , in number of visits to doctor is higher than the number of visits in UK. In UK patients are provided with urgent health care services if their complete treatment cannot be done by general practitioners. In UK, the process of accessing medical facilities is more time consuming. As a result success rate of some diseases such as cancer is higher in US. Analysis made in the essay indicates that both the systems followed in UK and US have some advantages and disadvantages.US policies can be implemented in UK health care model for delivering services to patients in less time.US can follow the health acre monitoring policies of US to maintain quality of the medical services. References Craig, D. (2014). Health Care as a Social Good. Washington: Georgetown University Press. Freeman, K., Field, R. and Perkins, G. (2014). Inconsistencies in Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) policies: A review of 20 NHS acute trusts. Resuscitation, 85, p.S11. Ham, C. (2012). What will the Health and Social Care Bill mean for the NHS in England?. BMJ, 344(mar20 2), pp.e2159-e2159. Hoffman, A. and Emanuel, E. (2013). Reengineering US Health Care. JAMA, 309(7), p.661. Hunter, D. and Perkins, N. (2014). Partnership working in public health. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. Liu, V., Read, J., Scruth, E. and Cheng, E. (2013). Visitation policies and practices in US ICUs. Critical Care, 17(2), p.R71. McConkey, D. and White, R. (2012). PA1 Assessing the Progression of the UK NHS Health Care Reforms and the Impact on Health Care Delivery. Value in Health, 15(7), p.A283. Shi, L. and Singh, D. (2012). Delivering health care in America. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones Bartlett Learning.