Universal Health Care - Research Paper Example

Universal Health Care of the Sociology of the Concerned October 22, Universal Health Care Simply speaking, universal health care refers to the system of healthcare funded and managed by the government in a geographical region that assures that each and every resident of that particular geographic region gets access to the needed and required medical assistance and services (Dixon & Scheurell, 2002, p. 54). The method through which the payments are facilitated for the health care extended to the citizens tend to vary much depending on the municipality or the country providing the universal health care.

In the recent times with the ensuing of debates as to the right of the citizens to have a ready access to the health services, the concept of universal health care has gained much importance (Dixon & Scheurell, 2002). While the nations that do not have a system of universal health care, universal health care is being vouched as a panacea for many social evils. In contrast the nations that have institutionalized universal health care, the system is under attack from many quarters. In that context, the issue of universal health care within the United States is highly politicized.

Being the only industrialized and developed that is sans any universal system of health care, many politicians and the pressure groups within the United States favor the treatment of universal health care as a prime priority. In France the system of health care tends to be universal in it scope and ambit, and the health care in France to a large extent is financed by the national health insurance and the state (Gauthier-Villars, 2009). There is no denying the fact that France has one of the best health care systems in the world.

The tax payers in France tend to fund a state health insurer that is Assurance Maladie in proportion to their resources and income and each and every citizen in France is extended health care even if one is not in a position to pay for it (Gauthier-Villars, 2009). Thereby the French health care system is managed through a social security system. As per the available data, France allocates 9.8% of its GNP to the health care services (Allianz, 2013). This poses an immense onus on the French government that has to contend with a budgetary deficit of Euro 11 Billion (Allianz, 2013).

As per some conservative estimates, going by the burgeoning French health care system, the budgetary deficit in France is estimated to soar to Euro 70 Billion by the year 2020 (Allianz, 2013). With the curtailment of the money flowing into the French health care system owing to rising unemployment, increasing health care costs and an aging population, it is facing multiple challenges (Gauthier-Villars, 2009). Though the successive governments in France favored multiple reforms to the national health care system, yet they faced a stiff resistance from the people who treat health care as a social right (Gauthier-Villars, 2009).

The Canadian health care system is also universal in its approach and scope. The health care system in Canada relies on a system of socialized health insurance plans that do have the potential to provide health care coverage to all the Canadian citizens (Canadian Health Care, 2007). The Canadian health care is funded publically and is administered and managed on provincial and territorial basis with the salient guidelines emanating from the Federal government (Canadian Health Care, 2007). As per the Canadian health care system, the citizens are extended preventive health care and medical treatment through hospitals, primary care physicians and additional medical services (Canadian Health Care, 2007).

The health care spending in Canada reached the figure of $200 billion in the year 2011 (Canadian Institute of Health Information, 2013). This augmenting cost of health care is posing many challenges to the government that is facing a scarcity of resources that could be allocated to other social welfare activities like employment and infrastructure. Thereby the health care system in Canada has been subject to much controversy and debate. There is no denying the fact that based on the salient modes of funding, management and administration, there tend to be a variety of universal health care systems operational in different countries.

The Beveridge model of universal health care is name after William Beveridge, the person who was responsible for designing UKs National Health Service or NHS. As per the Beveridge model of universal health care, the health services are financed and paid for through the tax payments accrued by the state, just like any other public services (Saltman, Busse & Figueras, 2004, p. 158). In that context most of the hospitals are owned by the state and the private hospitals and doctors treating the patients collect their payment from the state.

Then there is the Bismarck model of universal health care where the health care is funded and provided for by an insurance system that are financed by both the employees and the employers on the basis of proportionate payroll deductions (Saltman, Busse & Figueras, 2004, p. 191). France affiliates to a Bismarck model of universal health care. The national health insurance model of universal health care by Canada resorts to the features of both the Beveridge and Bismarck model. The universal health care has both its advantages and flaws.

Ethically speaking each and every citizen should have the right to healthcare and the poorer citizens will be able to focus their efforts and resources on bettering their lives if they are extended a universal health care by the state. Besides a universal system of health care is bound to make the health services more efficient by obliterating the inefficiencies and duplication of efforts and by facilitating a centralized national data base that will make diagnosis and treatment even easier. On the other side it is a fact that the government agencies and organizations are infamous for their inefficiency and red tapism and thereby one could not expect the universal health care to be quiet efficient and effective.

Besides, free health care is never free as the citizens are expected to pay for it through taxes or in other ways. It goes without saying that universal health care is at present a highly controversial issue that has attracted much debate in both the nations that have a universal health care system and in nations that do not have such a system. Yet, it is a fact that universal health care has served millions of people around the world and it certainly could be made better by curtailing the innate flaws.

References Dixon, J., & Scheurell, R.P. (2002). The State of Social Welfare. Westport, CT: Praeger. Gautier, Villars, D. (2009, August 7). France Fights Universal Care’s High Cost. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB124958049241511735 Healthcare in France. (2013). Allianz. Retrieved from http://www.allianzworldwidecare.com/healthcare-in-france Health Spending to Reach $200 Billion in 2011. (2013). Canadian Institute of Health Information. Retrieved from http://www.cihi.ca/CIHI-ext-portal/internet/en/document/spending+and+health+workforce/spending/release_03nov11 Introduction. (2007). Canadian Health Care.

Retrieved from http://www.canadian-healthcare.org/ Saltman, R.B., Busse, R., & Figueras, J. (2004). Social Health Insurance Systems in Western Europe. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press.