Great Britain is a northwestern European island nation comprising England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The health system serves a population of 67,530,172 as of June 18, 2019, based on the latest United Nations estimates, which ranks 21st globally.
Great Britain has a universal healthcare system that’s government-financed, the National Health Service (NHS). The NHS includes an array of nationally financed healthcare systems in Great Britain. It consists of the NHS (England, Scotland, Wales) and Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care. The NHS provides to all citizens universal care and works grounded in one governing tenet: healthcare coverage is a fundamental human right and the government should deliver it to all persons. The bulk of the NHS bankroll derives from overall taxation and a minor share from a payroll tax for public insurance. The NHS also collects revenue from copayments, private patients’ use of NHS services, and some other subsidiaries. Along with the public health care coverage offered by the government, Great Britain also offers privately-run insurance which can be purchased to supplement the basic coverage. Procurement of private insurance plans is the choice of nearly 12% of the population.
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General practitioners (GPs) predominantly provide primary care and function as secondary care sentinels. In 2014, there were 36,920 GPs (FTE), 1,530 patients per GP, in 7,875 practices, and a mean of 7,171 patients per practice. There were 40,443 clinical specialists and an additional 53,786 physicians in training.
Access
As stated in a study of seven developed nations, Great Britain's healthcare system is one of the world’s most efficient (Chang, Peysakhovich, Wang, & Zhu, n.d.). In Great Britain, rights for those entitled to NHS care are outlined in the NHS Charter; they encompass impartial access to care and for some departments within certain time allotments, like emergency and scheduled hospital care. Every 'ordinarily resident' is naturally permitted NHS care, usually at no cost at the point of care, and also members of the European Union. This means that every single person in Great Britain gets access to free healthcare, whether they are children, unemployed, or retired. Basically, the NHS supplies or reimburses preventive services, covering screening and vaccination schedules, inpatient and ambulatory care, physician services, inpatient and outpatient medications, some ophthalmology care, medically essential dental care, behavioral health care, plus care for some learning disorders, some elder care, palliative care, rehabilitation, plus physical therapy, and community-based nurses’ home care. Great Britain has rather short waiting times for preventative care and access to urgent care services after hours but for specialist care and elective, non-emergency surgery lengthy waiting times. There are some problems with the NHS, such as a workforce shortage, lack of beds, and a lack of funding, but as a whole the system runs smoothly and cuts down on a significant number of costs by decreasing the administrative expenses related to insurance paperwork.
Medication Coverage
In Great Britain’s health system, prescribed medications are free in NHS hospitals. A flat copayment applies to outpatient prescription medications (presently GBP 8.20, or USD 11.60, per prescription item). No copayments apply to children under 16 years and full-time students 16 to 18 years, elderly over 60, unemployed/poor people, expecting women and those who delivered in the last year, and cancer patients, other specific chronic diseases, or specific disorders. Prepaid certificates are available at GBP 29.10 (USD 41.10) for three months and GBP 104 (USD 147) for one year for patients needing copious quantities of prescription medications. Regardless of how many prescriptions they require, patients sustain no added costs for the certificate’s duration. In 2013, 90% of prescriptions in England were dispensed free of charge.
Specialist Referral
Within the NHS, referral to a specialist is possibly a moderately more complex process than in the United States. The person must first visit a GP (or go to the emergency room) who will give an early diagnosis and make recommendations for additional care. This may include a referral to a specialist who will then take on the case and collaborate with the GP who will continue to provide continuous care to the patient. This collaborative effort means that information is communicated more easily between practitioners, something that runs less smoothly in the U.S. healthcare service. Waiting times vary significantly from practice to practice. Individuals buy voluntary health insurance (VHI) to avoid potential waiting lists to see a specialist should they need to, have some choice over the specialist they see, and ensure more comfortable surroundings in the event of an inpatient stay. Companies purchase VHI cover for their employees as a fringe benefit or an extension of occupational health services.
Pre-Existing Conditions
The British NHS provides for all preexisting conditions as with emergency care. As the NHS is a provider of care at the point of service, it does not discriminate between preexisting conditions and new ones, and individuals can even make elective choices about their ongoing care, despite the fact that there are waiting lists for some of these services.
Financial Implications
There are no medical bills in the United Kingdom, which means that one implication is that no one will ever go bankrupt from co-pays or insurance policy excess clauses. This means that people can feel secure in their access to healthcare and do not need to save money for emergency medical care, which is something that cannot be said of the system in the U.S. The NHS acts more as a safety net, which could cause some people to be more reckless with their health, but there is no indication of this being a problem within Great Britain or any other country with socialized medicine. Another financial implication is on the macro scale and refers to the hospitals and providers themselves. In Great Britain, providers compete with each other for survival rather than to increase profit. They are somewhat competing for government contracts, which in turn leads to more money, but this is spent on equipment, bills, and staffing.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Great Britain's universal healthcare system has been analyzed in this essay, access to it, and how it affects patients financially. Comparing it with ours, the American one, it can be said that it overshadows our healthcare system in preventive care, but is inferior in terms of access and waiting time.
References
- Chang, J., Peysakhovich, F., Wang, W. & Zhu, J. (n.d.). The UK Health Care System. Retrieved from http://assets.ce.columbia.edu/pdf/actu/actu-uk.pdf
- Foubister T. & Richardson E. (2016). United Kingdom. In Sagan, A. & Thomson, S. (Eds.). Voluntary Health Insurance in Europe: Country Experience [Internet]. Copenhagen (Denmark): European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies; 2016. (Observatory Studies Series, No. 42.). Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK447698/
- Ginter, P.M., Duncan, W.J., & Swayne, L.E. (2018). Strategic Management of Healthcare Organizations. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
- Hong, K.P. (2017). Governance Issues in Health Financing. International Encyclopedia of Public Health (2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/health-care-financing
- Osborn, R., Moulds, D., Schneider, E.C., Doty, M.M., Squires, D., & Sarnak, D.O. (2015). Primary Care Physicians in Ten Countries Report Challenges Caring for Patients with Complex Health Needs. Health Affairs, 34(12), 2104–2112. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2015.1018
- Osborn, R., Moulds, D., Squires, D., Doty, M.M., & Anderson, C. (2014). International Survey of Older Adults Finds Shortcomings in Access, Coordination, and Patient-Centered Care. Health Affairs, 33(12), 2247–55. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2014.0947
- Penn State University (2016). Great Britain: The National Health Service. Retrieved from https://sites.psu.edu/smithcivicblog/2016/01/16/great-britain-the-national-health-service/
- Thorlby, R. & Arora, S. (2016). The English Health Care System, 2015. 2015 International Profiles January 2016 of Health Care Systems. Commonwealth Fund pub. 1857.
- Tulchinsky, T.H. & Varavikova, E.A. (2014). Measuring Costs. The New Public Health (3rd ed.). Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/health-care-financing
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