What Is Universal Healthcare?
Universal health care is a system in which every person in a specific region is covered for health care. Many times this also includes mental health care as well as dental care. Governments use a number of different methods to solve the problem of covering each eligible resident. The only wealthy, industrialized country in the world without universal health care is the United States.
Implementation
The concept and motivation for government-sponsored health care is extending access to all of its citizens. Legislation, regulation and taxation are needed to make sure the implementation goes well. Some costs are borne by the patients, however, the bulk of the medical costs are paid by either tax revenues or compulsory insurance coverage. The main challenge behind implementation is in deciding whether the government will manage the system or if a public-private combination will be established.
Challenges
One challenge for a nation that is seeking health care reform is the political debate. This stems from either a reluctance to establish a government-controlled system or issues with spending. In the United States, government programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid or TRICARE already cover 27.8 percent of the U.S. population. However, the cost for these programs accounts for 15 percent of the country's GDP, a larger percentage than almost any other country in the world.
As of 2007, more than 15 percent of the citizens in the U.S. had no health care coverage.
Single-Payer Coverage
Single-payer health care is the concept in which a large fund is established from some sort of revenue, and this single fund is responsible for paying the costs of health care. Health professionals receive payment regardless of whether a patient goes to a private or public facility.
Many analysts believe that in addition to answering the moral call for the program, this method also drives down costs overall because uninsured people get treatment. The majority of uninsured people receive their health care in emergency rooms because they don't receive preventative care, and emergency room treatment is far more expensive than regular doctor visits.
Examples of this program are seen in the health care of Canada and Australia.
Public Funding
The publicly funded option has been adopted by a number of countries, such as the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain. These nations have eliminated insurance companies or programs entirely; primary and long-term care are covered free of charge for the citizenry. Prescriptions and dentistry are kept at a flat rate or covered as well.
This system is funded by tax revenue. The tax rate in these countries is higher than other nations, however, costs are kept down by leveraging the power of the government.
Compulsory Programs
Other countries, such as Germany, have a compulsory insurance program, meaning every citizen is required to purchase health insurance from either a private company or through the government. This system keeps costs down by creating a risk-compensation pool, which prevents companies from facing heavy losses by making one fund of lower-risk clients pay into the pool while funds with higher-risk clients receive compensation from the pool.
In these situations, the funds cannot choose whom they will cover, and the coverage level is usually set by a government mandate.
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