A Comparative Study on Health Care ModeBetween British and American(By Class1 苏华虹20102401160)Instruction:As we all know, in recent years, China government has made great effort in our country’s healthy care system reform, with a tortuous development process. To prevent from more mistakes, we China also try to learn from other health care system mode and the experience when taking the system into practice of some developed countries such as the UK and the USA. Therefore it is meaningful to make a comparation between these two countries. In this passage, we will talk about the characteristics of the US and UK’s medical system and the mode of operation; the expense of the health care; the problems of these two system, at the end of it; we will talk about what we can learn from these two system to build a better healthy care system.Key words: Medical healthy care mode, government-leading, market, comparison, revelation.BodyComparing the two health care modes UK and U.S., it is obvious there are both similarities and differences between them. The similarities include: 1.The two modes hold the same goal of providing medical service to the nations 2.Each mode is in accordance with the value, spirit and will of the nations. (The American advocate for freedom and they don’t like to led by the government while the British are taken for granted that every citizen has right to enjoy medical services provided by the government) 3. Both the two mode are not perfect. Problems come along when taking the mode into practicing and both British and the American government is trying to reform the mode to get a better one. The differences are also obvious: 1.The British mode is leading by government, while the American mode is more based on the market in accordance with the principles of competition. 2. Most of the Britishhospitals owned by the state and the medical system is almost entirely supported by the progressive income tax. While there are much more non-profit and private hospitals and the government only bear the medical cost for the elderly, the poor and the disable and most of the rest are by the medical insurance. 3. The whole nations of UK can enjoy medical service from NHS while in USA; there is still 10% of the population lack medical insurance cover. 4. The mode of USA cost more than that of UK. Then in this text, we will focus on the differences.The medical mode of UK and USA is quite different depending on differences in values and politics in these two countries. Generally speaking, the United Kingdom martins a British government-led medical model. The United States is one of very few industrialized nations that do not provide some type of universal service. The medical care system of United States is guided mostly by the market without a national health system.The British government bare responsibility of health care of the nations for large part. Regional asylum Act of 1808, the metropolitan poor Act of 1867 and the Local Government Act 1929, both stress the importance of the government providing medical service for nations. On July 5, 1948, the United Kingdom created a national health system (NHS), which is a typical government-led model, to provide comprehensive services to all in need of medical services, and this day was called by many people “the greatest British historian of the day”. British residents, including foreigners legally residing in the United Kingdom, can enjoy free medical services. All residents receive equal health care services, receiving direct services guaranteed by the government. Health care system in the UK is almost entirely supported by the progressive income tax. Most of the hospitals owned by the state, almost all health care workers are state employees. Britain also has a relatively small medical insurance market; few hospitals provide medical services to holders of individual insurance. Private insurance is an option for those who wish to utilize it, and some employers offer private insurance as part of their hiring packages, but the great majority of Britons use the NHS exclusively.Different from Great Britain, the medical care system of United States is not ledby its government but decided mostly by the market principle of free composition, which reflects its advocate for freedom. Its government bears responsibility for a part of rather than the whole of the medical services and medicines as well as paying directly which mainly provided by commercial insurance, federal and state government-funded public medical insurance, supplemented by commercial organizations in accordance with market principles of free competition. In fact, the U.S. health care system is a hybrid system of a national, private, non-profit organization. Medical service providers in the United States are based on market: the number of non-profit and private hospitals is more than half of the total number of medical institutions, which shows the very high degree of market. In US, the poor and the old can get medical help from the state and federal government according the Medicare. Others may have the medical insurance, which are usually provided by the employers for the employee. The health insurance rate of large enterprises (over 200) and group is more than 80%. U.S. health insurance coverage is about 85%, of which nearly 60% by employer-sponsored insurance. For those without medical insurance or help from the government, they have to bear the medical fee themselves or the uninsured who can not afford to the cost of medical, they turn to the emergency because U.S. hospitals may not refuse emergency patients and they haven’t pay for the emergency.In a word, in UK, the government responsible for your healthy, that is to say, people in Great Britain do not have to dig into their pockets to pay for medical costs, money is no longer constitute barriers to access to good medical services. While in USA, unless you have got either a medical insurance or the federal and state government’s assistance or your employer, you must pay for the medical fee yourself.While, with difference health care mode, how much specificly should people in these two country pay for the medical care respectively and which country use less money to provide better medical service? Are the nations satisfied with their health care mode? The statistics will answer these questions.According to the World Health Organization, the United Kingdom has a population of 61.56 million, $ 36 240 per capita GDP, per capita health careexpenditure of $ 3399, total health spending accounted for 9.3 percent of GDP. How about in US.? In 1962, the U.S. health care expenditure as a percentage of GDP was less than 6 percent; in 2007, quickly rose to 16%. In 2009, health expenditure as a percentage of GDP was 16.2 percent, per capita health expenditure of $ 7.41 thousand, which is the world's most expensive health care system, because of the use and popularization of the high-tech pharmaceutical products. It means that Americans must pay much more money in medical treat than Brtishes cost.However, does it mean that America use more money to provide better medical service and the nations of USA are more satisfied with their health care mode? The statistics shown below can answer these questions. In the 2000, an overall assessment made by the World Health Organization in its hotly contested ranking of countries in terms of health system performance placed the United Kingdom 18th and the United States 37th out of 191 countries studied. Around 45 million Americans under the age of 65 lack health insurance cover, and far more US citizens than UK citizens report that the cost of health care is a barrier to access. Although the majority of the public in both the United Kingdom and United States express dissatisfaction with their healthcare systems, a higher proportion of the British population think their system works well, and a lower proportion believe the system needs to be rebuilt completely, than in the United States.As we all know, no system or policies are perfect so do the health care mode of UK and USA. When the nations enjoy the profits from the medical system, problems come along.For USA, high health care cost is the main problem, both for the nations and the government. Although the employers’ high insurance costs are paid by the employer s, they have to assume a relatively small part of the cost. The Medicare for the poor and the elderly has become the biggest burden of the fiscal. And also for the American firms, the cost of medical insurance is paid by the employer for the employee in accordance with the law has also become a heavy burden of U.S. companies. While, the output of the American medical system doesn’t equal to its high cost, as the largest and richest economies, there are still more than 10 percent of the population lack ofmedical insurance. Actually, the government in USA all stress on the medical system reform. There some examples : In 1933, Roosevelt proposed the health care system reform, which got accusation of medical experts, and not really legalized; In 1962, President Kennedy called for the establishment of health insurance for the elderly, has not yet passed by Congress; In 1976, President Carter initiated a universal health care reform initiatives, but this initiative has been shelved due to the tough economic situation; In 1994, President Clinton and his wife, Hillary proposed the most ambitious proposal, also suffered the worst defeat. On March 21, 2010, the U.S. Congress passed health care reform bill proposed by President Barack Obama to increase government responsibility, and expand insurance coverage, which will allow the U.S. government in 10 years to invest $ 940 billion, 32 million without insurance U.S. people into the health care system to improve U.S. health care coverage from 85% to 95%. This new bill through the United States "has taken a big step." However, all the reforms do not change the U.S. health care market-based mode of operation It seems that the medical system of UK works better than that of USA. But does it operate without problems? Of course not! Actually, although the NHS is seen as the envy of the world, with the increasing demand for public health services, the scale of the NHS continuing to expand, the increase in population, the NHS gradually caused grievances due to overload, of which an appointment, inefficiency become the focus of the grievances. And facing the emergence of financial pressure, the government had to start reform the NHS. Therefore, the UK also has medical reform since the past 30 years and in some ways the UK tries to learn from the health care mode of USA, which you may think is paradoxical but evidence is everywhere. Back in the 1980s, the Thatcher government drew on ideas advocated by the Stanford economist, Alain Einthoven, in formulating its plans for an internal market for the NHS. More recently, the Blair government's reforms to the NHS have led to a renewed interest in importing policies from across the Atlantic, most obviously in the introduction of a new system for paying hospitals that draws heavily on the use of prospective payment in the United States. Ten years after the release of the new national health care system in 1997, the British model has once again become the envy of the world an example.Although the current Cameron, the Conservative Party and Liberal Democratic Party coalition government are also various aspects of the reform, the UK government dare not to reduced or even canceled the universal welfare-style health system, for the nations are in favor of the NHS. For example, in 2009, the United Kingdom announced that the treatment of kidney cancer can no longer use the precious drugs; the result was a public outrage. Therefore, the reform to the medical system is just adjustment for better operation of the NHS but not change the British health care government-leading mode of operationConclusion:The two modes reflect the different value, spirit and polities of USA and UK, so China couldn’t just copy any mode. With the development of economy and teleology, Chinese government tries to improve the quality of medical service of the nation, and is trying to build a better medical system that can work efficiently. From studying the two health care modes of UK and USA, we can be clearer about what can learn from these two modes. After learning from the two modes, we should realize that: 1. the British and the USA mode have both similaraties and differences and neither may be the best mode but maybe they are the most suitable ones according to the value, spirit and politics of UK and USA respectively. 2. The British mode is fairer while the American mode is more efficient. We shouldn’t judge which one is better easily. 3. Whatever we China learn from, we must take the value, spirit and will of our nations and the national conditions into consideration but not just copy.From where I stand, the mode of USA is more efficient and use the limited money to help those who are really in need, but it seems ignore the responsibility of the government and not fit for our socialism, which is not good for the further development. For the mode of UK, it benefits the nations a lot but acquires a larger medical expense of government, and as a developing countries, it is hard for our government to provide national health system for our huge population of more than 13 billion. Meanwhile, I think if the British mode adopted in China, we have to wait longer than the British because of the huge population. And there is a huge gapbetween the rich and the poor in China, so in my opinion, we should use the limited funds to help the poor and once our government is powerful enough, all the people can be treated. In a word, either the mode of UK or that of USA is not what we China need during the developing period. Maybe we can adopt a mixture of the government-lea mode and the market-driven mode to build a better system that is fit for our national conditions as a developing countries and with huge population. I believe after ten years or decades, efforts, we Chinese will be able to build a better Chinese health model that and provides better medical service for nations and our Chinese people are proud of !。