Health Service Is Not Free At The Point Of Service

In contrast to the United States, Great Britain has a health care system that is focused on the delivery of health care as a human right. Because of this model health insurance is universal for all citizens allowing everyone to have access to care. According to Sick Around the World produced by Jon Palfreman (2008), Great Britain runs a system that allows their people to never receive medical bills. Instead, Great Britain has implemented a national health system where the government runs and regulates the delivery of health care (Shi & Singh, 2013, p. 20). They have universal coverage where all citizens have access to health care under the national health system (Thorlby & Arora, 2016, p. 49). People living in Great Britain can also choose to pay for their own private insurance but only a small number of people select to do so.

In the United States we have private healthcare which each individual person has to pay

America: The Land of the Free. Or, as someone who is familiar with the US health care system would call it, America: The Land of Overpriced Health Care That Covers a Fraction of it’s People. The US spends more money on their health care than any other country, yet there is a myriad of problems that exist within the system preventing it from being efficient. Billions of dollars are poured into the system for medication and treatment, when a lot of this spending is unnecessary.

How societies pay for health care, and how many resources they devote to health, affects both the care people can get and its quality. In most developed countries, health care is paid for largely by the government or an organization associated with it, using taxes collected from citizens. The United Kingdom, for example, has a “single-payer” system in which the government pays directly for care; in France and Germany, the government collects taxes to fund part of the government health care system, and employers and individuals pay for the remainder of the costs directly. In other countries, such as the United States, a portion of the health care system is marketbased, that is, paid for by private entities such as

In the video, Sick Around the World, we are able to speculate five different countries and what health care systems they have implemented. Some of these systems are great for their country and some not so much. The first country we visited was Great Britain, which has a government-run national health care system. There are no insurance premiums, no co-pay and doctors are considered to be government employees as well as hospitals are run by the government. Due to the government running Great Britain’s health care system the tax revenue are much higher than that of the U.S., in addition, since the whole country does have this national health care system, the wait time to be seen is much longer of that than the United States.

A lot of people will not succumb to getting help with their health, as they just cannot afford to pay for the treatments or operations themselves. Thousands of dollars are spent out of their own pockets to allow them the “luxury” of getting good healthcare. Imagine having to decide whether to go ahead with an operation to remove an appendix? For example the average appendectomy costs around $33,000. (Castillo) Heaven forbid a patient needs a heart by-pass surgery. The cost for this without insurance is an average of $117,094 and heart valve replacement cost an average of $164,238. (American Heart Association) Deny a loved one a life-saving surgery or use the money to buy your next

Healthcare in the US has notoriously been expensive because it is privatized.  This means that citizens who cannot afford insurance most often only seek medical attention if they feel they really need to. When uninsured people finally decide to go to the emergency room, it tends to come at both larger economic and health cost.  When they rack up high bills, those who are uninsured are for the simple fact that they can’t afford healthcare but aren’t poor enough from the government 's view.  The costs to the body comes because the illness or injury has developed to a point past return where the illness can either be incurable, unfixable, or create future problems. This leaves a huge burden on the family who is force which is if

Another benefit associated with free health care system is that it preserves life as it ensures free treatment to the entire citizens despite their financial status. Apparently, the life of a human being is sacred and incomparable with any amount of money. It is unethical for an individual to die due to lack of finance. As stated by Obama, the United States is known to have the most skilled doctors and healthcare facilities in the world (526). Ironically, the two third of the Americans have no access to health insurance cover, meaning, they cannot afford to get the health services from the best doctors and the best facilities in the country. To protect life and to avoid unnecessary deaths of the innocent citizens, free access to medical services should be a distinct system to be employed in the United States of America.

When a country has universal healthcare one may ask, who pays the bill? Some countries, like Japan, have a set fee for services, which are determined by the government. Every two years the costs for services and reimbursement rates are reassessed. Also, your income level determines the premium rates that you pay (Schabloski, 2008). Co-payments for healthcare

In this system, health care is provided and financed by the government through tax payments. The government owns most hospitals and clinics; some doctors work for the government, but there are also private doctors who collect their fees from the government. Retrieved from http://www.cmcc.ca/international In Britain, patients never get a doctor bill. The system tends to have low costs per capita because the government, as the only payer, controls what doctors can do, and they can charge.Retrieved from http://www.cmcc.ca/international

The U.S. healthcare system is not free, and this is another reason why it is very costly. Individuals pay medical costs through private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, personal payment, or worker’s compensation. Private insurances require people to pay premiums (periodic payments) to access healthcare benefits. Employers usually offer this type of insurance. Medicare is federal social insurance that covers people of more than 65 years old and

healthcare system is financed by premiums, the collection of cash paid for health insurance. At the same time, healthcare providers must be reimbursed for the services that are distributed. The responsibilities for these are shared by insurance companies and the government. The U.S. is one of the only developed countries that does not provide healthcare for all its citizens.

Around 16% of the population or around 42 million people, lacks health insurance coverage at any point in time. This is the highest amount of people in the industrialized world and causes citizens immense financial hardship and insecurity. In this system, there is also an inability to successfully control costs. The United States has the largest GDP per capita and the largest healthcare spending per capita. U.S. health outcomes compare poorly with those in the developed world. It is 20th in the world in infant mortality, 29th in low-birth weight babies, and 6th in life expectancy (Ridic, 2012). Another downfall of this system is that some hospitals are able to get the wealthiest and privately funded patients, while those that care for the poor are suffering significant financial losses and closing. Financial incentives encourage expensive high-tech diagnosis, treatment, and specialization; there is not enough primary care as compared to Canada (Cooper,

The patients and families were taken advantage of because they were poor and unable to afford proper healthcare. Participation in the study gave them access to medical treatment. Their poverty level and general lack of education contributed to their inability to gain knowledge beyond what was given to

However, in Europe and Japan, to name a few countries, Health Care is Universal. According to Austin & Wetle, “Universal Health Care or Single-Payer Health Care is subsidized by the government. This system provides 100% of the population with basic and affordable health coverage; America’s Health System currently supplies 82% of its population. (2012).