Health Care Systems Comparison – US versus UK

This article presents a health care Systems comparison; a comparative analysis of the U.S. and UK healthcare systems. 

Comparison of US and UK Health Care Systems

Introduction

Health Care Systems ComparisonRoemer (1991) defines the term “healthcare system” as the combination of resources, organisation, financing and management that results in the delivery of health services to the population. People’s health are impacted by factors outside the healthcare system such as poverty education, infrastructure, the social environment, and the political environment (Annex, 2007). This notwithstanding, a successful healthcare system should provide accessible, quality, responsive, and affordable healthcare services to the population according to the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2015). Countries differ in the way their healthcare systems are organised and how they operate. In this paper, the U.K. and U.S. health care  systems will be analysed and compared. For each of these countries, the country profile will be presented and the organisation and functioning of their healthcare systems discussed. The paper will also discuss health care coverage, healthcare financing and expenditure, and access and quality of healthcare in the two countries. The paper concludes by briefly evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the healthcare systems of each of the two countries – A Comparison of US and UK healthcare systems.

The UK Healthcare System

The United Kingdom Country Profile

The United Kingdom is made up of four constituent countries; Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England. The island country has a population of roughly 65,648,000 people with the majority (87.2%) of the population being white. The country’s minority population includes Blacks, Asians, Pakistanis, and other minority groups (CIA 2018). Its population growth rate is estimated at 0.52% while its death rate stands at 9.4 deaths per 1,000 people (CIA 2018). As noted by Parpworth (2016) the country is a constitutional monarchy governed by the rule of law and based on parliamentary democracy. In Europe, the U.K. has the third largest economy after Germany and France. Its GDP was roughly 2.88 trillion U.S. dollars (purchasing power parity) and 2.565 trillion U.S. dollars  going by official exchange rate in 2017 (CIA 2018). Read more

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