Health Care System in the United Kingdom - Essay Example

?International Health Question Despite its vast size, the United Kingdom has one of the best health care system in the world. The world health organization ranks the health care system in the United Kingdom as the second best in Europe. Among the factors that improve the efficiency and effectiveness in the United Kingdom’s health care system is the level of devolution in the sector. Unlike in most countries including the United States in which the government rolls out a uniform health care system to the entire country, the government in the United Kingdom has devolved health care with each state employing a unique and tailored health care system. Wales, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland all have different health care system with each system employing specific demographic features in the state thus rolling out a cost effective plan (Scutchfield & Keck, 2003). Despite the difference in the healthcare systems, each of the four states ensures the provision of free and high quality health care services to every permanent residents of the country. The health care systems consist of both private and public health facilities that operate under similar operational standards as defined by the country’s constitution (Ingram, 1984). The devolution of the health care system therefore seeks to improve efficiency by eliminating unnecessary logistical features that may deter speedy and efficient service delivery as in systems where the central government oversees the service delivery in every state. The state governments pay for the free medical services provided to permanent residents of the United Kingdom with revenues collected as taxes. The public health sector in the country has an effective and efficient structure of operations that ensures that it does not subdue the private sector. Instead, the two supplement each other thus maintaining the same quality of service delivery (O'Carroll, 2002). Question 2 Before the Affordable Care Act After the Affordable Care Act Prior to the formulation and implementation of the Obama care Act, the American health care system consisted of few stakeholders most of who enjoyed minimal government regulation. 80% of the health facilities in the country are private businesses while government controls only 20% of the facilities (Spence, 1975). However, most of the hospital facilities are nonprofit with only 18% of the health care facilities in the country being profit driven. Funding to most of the facilities come from the government through such programs as Medicaid, Medicare and TRICARE among many others. The health care system in the country discriminated against a specific category of the population. The provision of quality health care relied on the financial abilities of a patient a feature that locked out the poor from receiving quality health care (Simunic, 1980). The Affordable Care Act sought to increase the quality and access to health care services. The Act provided for an effective management of the health care facilities through the introduction of new measures that would make health care services more affordable. The Act introduced an efficient and equally affordable insurance service programs through which every citizen including the poorest in the society would access quality health care. The new regulations compel every employer to provide exclusive insurance services to their employees. Additionally, the government provides incentives to insurance service providers thus enticing their formulation of cheaper service bouquets for the poor most of whom could not afford such services (Sollecito & Johnson, 2013). Question 3 Impairments to attaining effective nutrition include poverty and illiteracy levels in different parts of the world. Nutrition refers to the consumption of appropriate foodstuff. Such constitute effective practices in health care management thus reducing the chances of people suffering from certain diseases. The ingestion of nutritious food revamps the body’s immunity thus developing an appropriate defense system for the body to counter pathogen infiltration. However, achieving the consumption of nutritious foods remains an impossible concept (Gostin, 2008). Among the factors that result in the inability to achieve such on a global scale, include lack of education in most parts of the developing economies (Chan & Leland, 1982). Such people have a limited understanding of such concepts thus making the implementation of particular dietary programs difficult. Another equally important factor is poverty; major parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia have dire need for basic food as people in such regions suffer from malnourishment. The inability of the population to lead descent lifestyles and afford the basic needs makes it impossible to roll out an all-inclusive nutrition programs. In order to revers such, countries must devise appropriate literacy programs. By improving the literary levels in specific societies, it becomes possible to teach and implement nutritional programs within a population. Additionally, a literate population is employable. Such people cannot suffer from abject poverty owing to their ability to capitalize on the readily available resources and fend a living out of such. Illiteracy in various parts of the world has therefore fostered the spread of poverty thus limiting the implementation of nutritional programs. With a literate population, it becomes possible to teach the appropriate consumption of readily available foodstuff thus achieving the appropriate nutritional levels (Furrow, 2001). Question 4 Politics and governance are fundamental factors in the management of countries. Political leaders formulate and implement policies that affect the lives of everyone in the country. This makes political philosophies adopted by the political leadership a fundamental feature in development of national health scheme (Grad & American Public Health Association, 2005). In the united scheme, the political philosophy of devolution has succeeded in developing an efficient health care system. In the country, the various states have different heath care system depending on the unique factors in the country. The different health care systems in the country seek to address the particular demographic uniqueness in the states. The plan has succeed in developing one of the best health care systems in the world (Meisenheimer, 1997). The central government coordinates the funding of the states while the state authorities manage the health care system. This eliminates logistical issues thus making service delivery efficient. Sweden, social democracy has adopted a relative yet efficient heath system. The country’s health care system is both efficient and effective with the government caring for the quality of the services. Through affordable insurance services, the Scandinavian country seeks to improve access to affordable health care services in the country by enrolling more people into the plan. Additionally, the country enjoys political unity and efficient identification resources. With this coordination, the government seeks to achieve success in rolling out the new health care system (McLaughlin & Kaluzny, 2006). References Chan, Y., & Leland, H. (1982). Prices and qualities in markets with costly information. Economic Studies 49: 499-516. Furrow, B. R. (2001). Bioethics: Health care law and ethics. St. Paul, Minn: West Group. Gostin, L. O. (2008). Public health law: Power, duty, restraint. Berkeley: University of California Press. Grad, F. P., & American Public Health Association. (2005). The public health law manual. Washington, D.C: American Public Health Association. Ingram, R. W. (1984). Economic incentives and the choice of state accounting practices. Journal of Accounting Research (Spring): 126-144. McLaughlin, C. P., & Kaluzny, A. D. (2006). Continuous quality improvement in health care. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett. Meisenheimer, C. G. (1997). Improving quality: A guide to effective programs. Rockville, Mar: Aspen. O'Carroll, P. W. (2002). Public health informatics and information systems. New York: Springer. Scutchfield, F. D., & Keck, C. W. (2003). Principles of public health practice. Clifton Park: Thomson/Delmar Learning. Simunic, D. (1980). The pricing of audit services: Theory and evidence. Journal of Accounting Research (Spring): 161-190. Sollecito, W. A., & Johnson, J. K. (2013). McLaughlin and Kaluzny's continuous quality improvement in health care. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Spence, A. M. (1975). Monopoly, quality, and regulation. Bell Journal of Economics 6: 417-429. Read More