Should Governments Provide Free Healthcare? A UK and US Comparison

This essay explores the debate surrounding government obligations to provide free, accessible healthcare to all citizens, regardless of age or health status, by comparing the public healthcare systems of the United Kingdom and the United States. The essay highlights the current healthcare status in both countries, focusing on the role of the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, which ensures equal treatment for all citizens, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the US. It discusses the benefits of free healthcare access in the UK, where the NHS provides extensive public services, and contrasts it with the US system, where health insurance is compulsory. The essay references various sources to support its arguments, including statistics on life expectancy, causes of death, and the impact of healthcare policies on different populations. It also examines the roles of organizations like the Patients' Association and the National Coalition on Health Care in improving patient care and advocating for better healthcare systems. The conclusion emphasizes that free access to healthcare has improved the UK's system, while the US mandates basic health insurance.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Title: Should government be obliged to ensure that free, accessible healthcare is available to
all citizens, irrespective of age or health status? Discuss public healthcare provision in two
countries to support the answer.
All citizen of United Kingdom should be eligible to get equal healthcare treatment.
This essay thus summaries the current healthcare status of United Kingdom and United States
and the role of National Health Services (NHS) in improving the healthcare system. This
essay also focusses on a which state have free access to healthcare and how it is beneficial.
According to the Ec.europa.eu. (2019), it is observed that healthcare system is
improving in United Kingdom. It is reported that 70% of the population of United Kingdom
defines themselves to be in good health, thought 80% of them are from high society and 60%
from the lowest quintile. They are providing extensive public services free. Public sources are
providing 80%of the total health cost which equals to 18.4% of overall government spending.
Earlier, cancer and cardiovascular diseases were the main cause which leads to death, but
now Alzheimer’s disease is also found to be one of the main causes of increasing death rate
(Prince et al.,2016). Mostly it is seen that highly educated people are suffering from
hypertension and depression than poor people. It is also proven that all the healthcare systems
in the United Kingdom are providing great quality care (Grosios, Gahan & Burbidge, 2010).
On other side, according to US EPA (2019), life expectancy was found to be 78.8 years,
second highest after japan having 84.2 years. It is also found that the main causes of death in
United States as per reports of 2015 are heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory
diseases, stroke and also due to accidents. However, death due to cardiovascular diseases
were found to be the highest as per reports of 2016. However, in order to achieve good
quality care, performance targets have been used as an extensive tool.

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National Health Services (NHS) of the United Kingdom ensures that all the citizens
get access to equal treatments. Every citizen should get equal priority regarding treatment. In
order to achieve this NHS have introduced a practical resource which aims to reduce
inequalities in accessing general treatment. This resource aims to promote understanding of
several community groups who are experiencing inequalities and in addition help them in
overcoming these barriers and proving them with equal access in the healthcare system.
Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2017 opined that that the society have kept its
promise in diminishing inequalities with individuals having disability (Sakellariou &
Rotarou, 2017). Improvement have been provided to disable people regarding transportation
and healthcare and is developing a positive impact on the UK healthcare. Increased emphasis
on quality which represents patient safety, patient experience as well as an effective clinical
practice and in addition has supported innovation in early diagnosis and PPPM-enabling
technologies like telemedicine (Grosios, Gahan & Burbidge, 2013). However, in United
States healthcare is regulated by the department of health and human services (HHS). HHS is
the principle agency of the government of United States in order to protect the health of all
the Americans and fostering them with essential human services. its main objective is to
enhance health of all the Americans by serving them with best health and human services. in
addition to this HHS also supports sciences underlying medicine, public health as well as
social services. in order to provide quality care to the Americans, HHS also collaborates with
the federal government (Burwell, 2015).
One of the organisations that cares for patients’ need in United Kingdom is the
Patients’ Association. It is a registered charity in England and Wales. It is an independent
charity which believes that every community deserves to get equal access to the health care
system. They mainly focus on the improvements that can be achieved in health and social
care of patients or citizens. They also convey patients’ priorities and concerns to the

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government and National Health Service of United Kingdom in order to ensure that citizens
and patients voice are heard and clarified. They think that all patient deserves high quality
and safe treatment in order to meet all their needs (The Patients Association,2019). There are
many private organisations in the united states which work in order to improve the healthcare
of their state. one of such organisations is National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC). Their
prime aim of this organisation is to promote a healthy population and construct a more
effective healthcare system which assures to provide quality care for all the citizens. Hence,
these organisations have marked its importance in the United Kingdom and in United States
respectively by meeting all the needs of the patient and improving the patient care of the
country (Bulger, 2015).
Health insurances gives the individual choices and flexibility in order to shape their
plan according to their needs. Health insurances are in increase demand in many countries
across the globe in order to improve the healthcare system of that particular country. Social
health Insurances main objectives include keeping the citizens healthy as long as possible;
providing hospital care to citizens and keeping them in better community for longer; staying
at the pointed edge of medicine and lastly confirming that the health care system remains
culpable (Ferrarini et al., 2013). A private health insurance plans gives access to doctors,
specialists practicing privately. The benefits of this insurance policy include shorter waiting
times, freedom to choose hospitals as well as doctors. Though most people residing in United
Kingdom do not need private insurance as they are accessed to free treatment plans already
but some individuals to buy this insurance in order to get the best treatment according to their
choices (Odeyemi & Nixon, 2013).However in United States , it is made compulsory for all
citizens to have a basic health insurance otherwise they will be subjected to phased-in tax
penalty (Obama, 2016).

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Responsibility for health legislation and general policy in U.K rests with Parliament,
the Secretary of State for Health, and also the Department of Health. Rights for those eligible
for National Health Service (NHS) care are summarized within the NHS Constitution; they
embrace the proper to access to worry while not discrimination and at intervals bound
deadlines for a few classes, like emergency and planned medical aid (Batalden et al., 2016).
They also manage the NHS budget, oversees 209 native Clinical commission teams (CCGs),
and ensures that the objectives come into being in an annual mandate by the Secretary of
State for Health are met, together with each potency and health goals (Boyle,2011). The
main application of the U.S federal government is to create and enforce laws which can
ensure order and stability to the society. According to the Affordable Care Act, 2010,
responsibility should be shared between the government, employers and other individuals in
order to ensure that all the American citizens gets access to affordable and good quality
health insurance (Blumenthal & Collins, 2014).
Therefore, it can be concluded that making free access to the healthcare treatment
improved the healthcare system of United Kingdom by many folds. However, United Sates
have not started the free access to healthcare treatment till date and hence made it compulsory
for all the citizen to have a basic health insurance.

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References
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