HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS

Comparison of Healthcare Systems

Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

Introduction

HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS

Healthcare systems of the United States and United Kingdom present an interesting
phenomenon that attract scholars who in many occasions compare and contrast various aspects
like their weakness and strengths. The two nations have differences in their health systems as
how much they spend and how the systems run. The United States of America spends a greater
percentage of their GDP on healthcare systems while in the United Kingdom a lower percentage
is used. However, the general public of the two countries are dissatisfied with their healthcare
systems. Majority of the population in the U.K believes that their healthcare system works well
compared to a low proportion of the population in the U.S (Mundy, 2009).
Therefore in this assignment a comparison between the two nations will be presented
putting into consideration the following standards; access, cost, quality and continuity.
These four standards go hand in hand when used under healthcare systems. Healthcare
services are considered to be very important to the population and thus when the word access is
used, it refers to the ease at which the people can get healthcare services within their nations. The
services should be available and adequately supplied for the population to have access to them.
Cost is an aspect that influences healthcare services accessibility. Cost is approached from a
financial perspective whereby, when the services are deemed to be expensive, few people will
have access to them and vice versa.
Quality is another aspect that is used to define whether the services offered met the
required standards. Healthcare services are considered to be of quality when the people who have
sought them benefit and have their health problems solved. On the other hand, continuity deals
more with how a healthcare system manages diseases, physicians as well as procedural
availability. Continuity targets to evaluate patients satisfaction after seeking a medical service
for a given period of time.

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Discussion
This section is going to cover the contrasts and comparisons for the two nations under the
four stated standards.
Access
In the United States of America, the access to healthcare services is determined by the
fact that one has to be a member of an insurance provider under an employer or belongs to a
private policy ownership. The insurance policies prescribe the services covered as well as their
cost. Medicare and Medicaid which are funded by the federal government are the two main
health policies that offer comprehensive healthcare services to the Americans. For the Americans
who are not under insurance medical covers, they most likely have a limited access compared to
the covered ones (Swan et al., 2007). This population includes the people who are not employed
and have a low income. On the contrary, United Kingdom provides free public healthcare
services to its population. Majority of the services are taken care of with exception to optical,
prescription and dental care. Despite having free public healthcare services in the U.K system,
discrepancies arise such as the patients experience long queues at the facilities waiting to be
attended to.
Cost
U.S spends approximately 17.9% of its GDP on healthcare while U.K spends
approximately 9.6%. The United States healthcare system appears to be investing much than the
one in the United Kingdom. However, the two nations seem to lag behind in terms of infant
mortality and life expectancy as compared to high performing nations like Japan and Sweden
(Leatherman & Sutherland, 2003).. Moreover, U.S records a higher number of citizens who

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consider that the cost of healthcare services act as a key barrier to healthcare access since more
than 45 million Americans are not under health insurance cover. In the U.K, the case is different
since the population enjoys free public healthcare services. England was found to offer the most
equitable healthcare services to its population than the United States of America in a five nation
survey (Ronald, 2004).
Quality
In a study that was done targeting to evaluate the quality of study between the two
nations found out that, the United States was offering relatively good quality medical healthcare
than the United Kingdom. Further, the study noted that this was applicable for the patients who
were ready to spend for the services. Another study that was done by World Health Organization
found out that United Kingdom ranked position 18 in terms of performance compared to 37 th
placed United States. From this finding, it can be concluded that, even though U.S has been
known for its clinical excellence as well as provision of classified care for the insured, it doesnt
match the achievements that are associated by the United Kingdom healthcare system (WHO,
2010).
Continuity
Continuity aims at assessing the level of satisfaction of the patients after seeking medical
care. It also assesses how as healthcare system maintains a given standard of excellence as far as
medical services are concerned. An assessment done by Gallup poll that aimed to determine the
patients level of satisfaction, found out that 38 percent of Americans considered the services
rendered to them as of good quality while 21% of the UK population rated the services to be
excellent. The study further identified that, Americans visited doctors at least twice a year

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compared to their counterparts who did it once. However, 44% of the Americans noted that the
healthcare services sought were unaffordable in most circumstances as opposed to 25% of the
Brits who participated in the polls (Starfield & Shi, 2012).
References
Leatherman S., Sutherland K. (2003). The quest for quality in the NHS. London: Stationery
Office.
Mundy, D. (2009). Healthcare web privacy policy management: a UK to USA comparison.
International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management, 10(6), p.408.
Roland M. (2004). Linking physicians' pay to the quality of carea major experiment in the
United Kingdom. N Engl J Med; 351: 1448-54.
Starfield B, Shi L. (2012). Policy relevant determinants of health: an international perspective.
Health Policy; 60: 201-18.
Swan, J., Newell, S., Robertson, M., Goussevskaia, A. and Bresnen, M. (2007). The role of
institutional differences in biomedical innovation processes: a comparison of the UK and
US. International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management, 8(3/4), p.333.
World Health Organization (2010). The World Health Report 2010. Health systems: improving
performance. Geneva: WHO, 2010.
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