To make a comparative report on the healthcare systems of Kazakhstan, the UK and the USA

Kezdykbai Nabi PD303

Task: To make a comparative report on the healthcare systems of Kazakhstan, the UK and the USA

Cpo 2

- Having health insurance does not equal universal access to health care. In practice, in many countries everyone has insurance, but medical services within its framework are “metered”, or people have to wait a long time in line for treatment.

- Rising costs for the healthcare system are not unique to the United States. Although in other countries these costs constitute a much smaller percentage of total GDP and GDP per capita, they are increasing almost everywhere, creating budget deficits, higher taxes and cuts in social benefits.

- In countries that emphasize government control of health care, citizens are more likely to experience waiting lists, rationing of services, restrictions on physician choice, and other barriers to health care.

- Countries with the most effective health care systems achieve this result by abandoning centralized government control and relying on market mechanisms - competition, cost sharing, market prices and freedom of choice for the consumer.

No country is talking about abolishing universal health insurance, but the move away from centralized government control and the transition of health care to a market basis should be recognized as the prevailing global trend.

Thus, the way to solve the problems of American health care is not to nationalize it, but to take into account the experience of other countries, which shows the failure of a centralized administrative-command system and the benefits of providing consumers with more effective incentives and freedom of choice.

In his film “Healthcare” (SiCKO), Michael Moore talks about the problems of American medicine and proposes introducing a state system in this area based on the “single payer” principle. Moore compares the American health care system with the Canadian, British and French and draws conclusions in favor of the latter. Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman also believes that health care in France, Britain and Canada is better organized than in the United States. And the organization Physicians for a Public Health Program notes that America is “the only industrialized country where medical care for the population is not under government control.” These and other critics of the American health care system note: in countries where this system is put on a government footing, the cost of medical care (in terms of average per capita GDP) is much lower than in the United States, and the quality of the services provided is higher in some respects. They argue that by adopting such a model, the United States can solve many of the problems facing its health care today. Krugman, in particular, emphasizes: “The obvious way to improve the efficiency of the American health care system is to make it more similar to similar systems in other developed countries.”