Compare the U.S healthcare system to Ireland
Introduction
With United States entering a new era of debate about the future of the healthcare system and with various alternative models now being implemented in the individual states, this paper examines the similarities and differences between the national health care system in Ireland and United States’ varying models in addressing the needs of the health service among citizens. The focus of this paper is to identify probable opportunities that the states may benefit from the relative strengths and avoid or amend the limitations inherent in every health care system. The numerous differences in the healthcare systems of these countries are mainly influenced by the political structure, history and wealth of the country.
Healthcare system has a significant influence of on the present and future generation. Consequently it has a principle theme of the political and social culture in the United States. Although many healthcare services are offered for free at the point of delivery, broadly speaking, the national healthcare systems in the US offer service predominantly via the modes of taxation. However much American citizens consider elevated involvement of the government in healthcare delivery, it’s important to understand ways in which this approach may be accomplished and the effect it would have in the country. This paper further reviews the healthcare financing and delivery systems in the United States and Ireland.
International comparison
WHO, a united nation agency issued a repot in June 2000 that raked the health systems of about 200 countries worldwide. Ireland was ranked 9th while the US was ranked 17th in the overall system performance. The study also revealed that 57% of Ireland population commented that they were either moderately of dreadfully gratified by their health system. However, this percentage was much lower in the US where 40% of the populations were moderately or very satisfied. According to the study done by the organization for economic cooperation and development in 2006, the total health expenditure of Ireland was approximately 8.3% of the gross domestic product while that for the United States was about 15.3% of their GDP. This means that the public spending of the two countries differ quite significantly (Abbie et al, 2010)
Consequently, America has been ranked the highest of all 30 countries in the general health expenditure percentage GDP and per capita expenditure. It has also been ranked as the country with the lowest public health percentage all the 30 OECD states. On the other hand, Ireland was the fourth lowest country in the public health expenditure, while it was ranked slightly lower than the mean in the GDP and per capita expenditure. Therefore, it’s quite evident that United States spends considerably more funds in its health system compared to Ireland. It’s significant to focus on the GDP due to the economic concept of opportunity costs which claims the higher the GDP percent spend on healthcare.
Ireland Healthcare Systems and Infrastructure
The government department responsible for health in Ireland is the department of health. The goals of this health department are simply to improve the overall health standards of citizens in the country. The department executes its functions by directing, supporting and controlling the NHS and other social care organizations to provide fair, improved standards of health services and provide alternatives to patients and value to tax payers.
The department is usually controlled by the members of parliament who are usually democratically elected and lead by the secretary of health. Other authorities that manage the health care delivery in Ireland are such as minister of state for h delivery and reform, mister of public health and the secretary of state for care services who works under the parliament. The roles are undertaken by the members of parliament. The parliament is the primary legislative body of the healthcare system in Ireland which is similar to the US congress. In Ireland there are many other categories of individuals who take up leadership in the health department and this include, department directors, board members such as NHS chief executive, permanent secretary , chief medical officer, national clinical director, chief nursing officer, permanent secretary among others (Abbie, et al 2010)
The government of Ireland guarantees the right for all citizens to access health care through and established program known as National Health Service. The National Health Service approach is market minimized and is the primary means of obtaining health care services in Ireland. The National Health Service system is composed of a number of subsystems that works as one organization in order to provide health care to its citizens and residents of Ireland .National health Service system is considered as a comprehensive system that compasses health care facilities, workforce, technology, and pharmaceutical financing, coverage and delivery.
Primary care trusts are having the principle responsibility of meeting the health needs of citizens in Ireland. They are local organizations through which the Nation Health Service requires individuals to acquire health services. However, there are some instances when it’s the citizens may be exempted by the National Health Service to seek Medical treatment from the Primary Care trusts. The PCTs controls about eighty percents of the National Health Service budget and this means that they take up a bigger percentage in the Irelands health care delivery system. These local organizations serve as the lading centers of health care delivery. The PCTs provide many services and practitioners are also manage individuals primary care that is considered as the first contact whenever an individual is seeking medical attention just like Primary Care Physicians In United states.
The general practices of the National Health Service are those that are made up of general practitioners, nurses, and midwives occupational therapists among others. The Just patient Care Physicians whose roles have been discussed below, they provide a wide variety of health services that include diagnosis, treatment, education, medical testing among other services to their National Health Service individuals. Consequently, there is Acute Trust which is part of National Health Service and they are responsible for the National Health Service Hospitals. They are responsible for delivery of high quality services and fiscal efficiency and developed strategic development of health delivery. The national Health hospitals and acute trusts are composed of a large amount of National Health Service workers that include a variety of clinicians. They operate to meet the requirements of the secondary care in Ireland. Secondary care is regarded to as an emergency or elective care.
These local organizations serve as the leading centers of health care delivery. The PCTs provide many services and practitioners are also managed individuals primary care that is considered as the first contact whenever an individual is seeking medical attention just like Primary Care Physicians In United states. The general practices of the National Health Service are those that are made up of general practitioners, nurses, and midwives occupational therapists among others. The Just patient Care Physicians whose roles have been discussed below, they provide a wide variety of health services that include diagnosis, treatment, education, medical testing among other services to their National Health Service individuals. Consequently, there is Acute Trust which is part of National Health Service and they are responsible for the National Health Service Hospitals. They are responsible for delivery of high quality services and fiscal efficiency and developed strategic development of health delivery. The national Health hospitals and acute trusts are composed of a large amount of National Health Service worker that include a variety of clinicians. They operate to meet the requirements of the secondary care in Ireland. Secondary care is regarded to as an emergency or elective care.
Healthcare system in United States of America
The US is the only industrialized country that doesn’t provide universal health care to its citizens; therefore, this is a complete opposite to Ireland and all other developed countries. Access to healthcare in the United States is not guaranteed by the government. Historically the US government has taken up a passive role in healthcare delivery. Not only does the government not mandate for universal healthcare in the country, but also does not require people to acquire health insurance coverage at any level. The healthcare system in the US is magnificently distinct compared to Ireland. Where as the national health system is Ireland is considered as a market minimized, the US healthcare system functions as a market maximized entrepreneurial system. This is where the government has a small impact and financial role for healthcare of it citizens where as the private sector are encouraged and promoted is order on take over the responsibility of healthcare delivery. Unlike Ireland, this is the principle reason as to why the US has the highest health care expenditure in GDP percentage and the smallest public financial contribution of the members of the OECD counties.
A bigger percentage of the population in US is not insured. Moreover, those without insurance over are required to pay for the health care service which they receive. It has also been discovered that the biggest bankruptcy in United States I due to uncovered medical bills. According to a study done by the Harvard University, 50% of all bankruptcies involved medical bankruptcy and every 30 seconds some one in United States files for bankruptcy as a result of severe health condition
US Health Care System and infrastructure
Health care delivery in US may either be considered as private or public. Public health care is considered to the responsibility of the government or the public. There are some of the Areas where the government agencies and the public provide levels of health care and this include prevention of diseases, health promotion, reporting and monitoring communicable diseases and monitoring environmental factor such as quality of water and air and the evaluation and analysis of indicators of data on public health.
Unlike Ireland, the US department of health is the principal federal agency that controls numerous sub agencies whose duty is to perform the health care delivery services for the government. These organizations include the center for disease control, food and dug administration, national institute of health and the Agency for Health care Research and Quality. Every geographic region in the US is somehow made up of many regional health care delivery systems unlike Ireland which is managed by one central organization. In most metropolitan regions, there are numerous different systems. For example, Central Florida region there are three health delivery systems and this include, Florida Hospital, Orlando regional and Health south. Each of these systems in composed of networks of health professionals and institutions such as physician practices and hospital.
When an individual seeks medical attention in US for an episodic or monochromic medical condition, it’s typical for them to first to visit primary care physician who are the first point of contact with medical services with an objective of offering diagnosis and treatment. The PCPs are basically, pediatricians, nurse practitioners general practitioners among others. the primary care providers view patients from all ages, gender and ethnicities who experience diverse medical conditions therefore they need to be widely educated and frequently work in secondary and tertiary care specialists in delivering full level of diagnosis for clients
The secondary care is a level of medical attention mostly received in hospital setting and handled by specialty physicians. On the other hand, primary healthcare focuses on episodic or non chronic conditions while secondary care handled cases that are more chronic , persistent or traumatic conditions(Abbie et al,2010). Secondary care represents the elevating proportion of health care requirements in America as a result of increasing amount of chronic conditions in the US.
Emergency Care is part of secondary care and is referred to as the care received in absence of immediate medical attention and may lead to permanent injury or death. De pending on the depth on of the emergency condition, it may either be handled in the normal casualty department or in a triaged emergency department. On the other hand, tertiary care is considered a higher level of specialized or less specialized secondary care. It needs intensive medical attention and lengthy stay at the hospital. Patients that need tertiary care often have complicated health conditions that require technical medical care. The tertiary care centers and service providers are mostly affiliated with academic medical institutions, just like secondary care, tertiary care service providers’ work closely with primary care physicians in order to access the medical and personal history of patients (Anderson, et al 2010)
Health insurance and coverage in United States
The healthcare system is United States is essentially considered as an employer based system is one of the principle reasons as to why the unemployed are generally not insured. There are many health coverage organizations, plans, and systems all over United States. Health insurance is regarded as a contact in US where the financial risk is share between the insured and the insurer. The insurer offers partial or full reimbursement of the medical costs incurred by the insured depending on the insurance policy. The insured pay premiums every month in order to protect themselves from the risk of full payment. However, it’s not at all times when the insurance caters for medical bills but there are cases where individuals has to pay for their own health
Government sponsored health care contributes to less than 50% of the health and is mainly made by public funding which include Medicare, Medicaid and Veteran affairs. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid are federal agencies that control the US Medicare and Medicaid program which are the primary foundation of the public insurance in the US. Even though the two programs are government programs, they are mainly administered through private intermediaries who include, blue shield, blue cross among other managed care organization. Medicare is federal health insurance program that was established to offer coverage to those older those 65 years and the disabled. Medicare coverage is broken down in four different parts where part A is regarded as institutional care, part B is Voluntary enrollment plan that requires small monthly premium and also covers professional services. Part C is a duty of the balanced budget Act of 1997 while Part D is a prescription drug benefit that functions under a complicated system of numerous private entities (Sanders, 2002). On the other hand, Medicaid programs are a combined federal and state funded health insurance policy that fall below a specific level of income and also take account of individual assets and resources.
The veterans’ affair provides health care benefits to citizens that qualify the Veterans Health Administration. Benefits are based on individuals from active military service in the Army, Navy, Air force and marines. On the other hand private sponsored health care in United States are diverse. However, the most common way is through the employer benefit program. This is where an employer enters into contract with one or various insurance companies in order to provide health insurance to its employees. There are four categories of health insurance in US and these include convectional coverage, Health maintenance organization, preferred provider organization and point of service. Individuals may also acquire insurance through labor unions where workers come together and acquire insurance for their health.
Conclusion
Even though Ireland is reinforcing its efforts in order to increasingly involve the National Health Service and Private Health Care, there is a consequent movement in United States in order to increase health care reforms that may include establishment of universal health care system. Therefore, it’s quite evident that the two healthcare systems have historically been considered to be a direct opposite of each other. The two countries have both tried to make significant attempts in order to explore ways of approaching various aspects of their health systems so as to make profound improvements functions. Essentially, these systems are more or less similar than they are different and their objective is the same that is to offer high quality, affordable access to healthcare to their respective citizens.
Reference
Abbie M. et al (2010) A Comparative Analysis Of the United Kingdom and The United States Health Care Systems. Journal of health care AManger. Vol 26(3) pp 190-212
Sanders, J. (2002). Financing and Organization of National Health Systems. Health administration Press. Chicago.
Anderson, G. et al (2010) health spending, acess and Outcome trends in industrialized countries. Journal of Health Affair. 18(3) 178-192
