Comparison of health care services (Essay Sample)

Comparison of Health Care Services
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Healthcare systems of the United States, San Marino and Italy
The United States of America, San Marino and Italy have some of the best healthcare systems in the world. This is established straight from the way they are funded, coverage and provision of medical services. Nonetheless, a close study of these healthcare systems show significant differences, differences which hinder or facilitate their development.
United StatesSan MarinoItalyFundingThe major body that funds the United States Health care system is the federal government. However, there are several providers of health care and these have other sources of funding; for example, Medicare, which is under the public health Insurance gets funding from federal income taxes, pay roll tax which is gotten from employees and employers, (Garson, 2013).The state offers mandatory funding. Employers and employees also contribute regularly from their salaries, (Europe Cities, 2013).Funding of Health Care is mixed. There is health care that is funded from out-of-pocket spending. This is majorly through private care (France et al. 2005).
There is funding also from regional business tax. In addition to that, there is also funding gotten from revenues gotten from VATs; that is, value added tax.AdministeredThe United Health Care System is divided into two; the public health insurance and the private health insurance. Each of these is further subdivided like Medicare and Medicaid. For the public health insurance, the health systems are administered by the government e.g. Medicare. For the private health insurances, they are administered by private companies, for example, Aetna & Cigna.San Marino government health institute is the one that presides over the health care service in San Marino, (Europe Cities, 2013).There is provision of health care by both the private and public sectors. The public sector is provided by the national health service referred to Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (France et al. 2005). This is courtesy of the Ministry of Health. These services are spread out on a regional basis.Covered/Not CoveredThe systems has programs that cover people according to their ages, for example, Medicare covers people who are aged 65 and above and also those that are disabled while Medicaid covers people of low income and also the disabled.All Sammarinese citizens are covered.The Italian National Health System offers health services for all Europeans.
Among those covered are services of tests, hospitalization surgeries, pediatric medical assistance and medications, et al.Freedom of ChoiceMany people do not have a freedom of choice because they are locked in their jobs because they have the fear that they will lose coverage. This is attributed to the insurance system which is based on the employer and this restricts a person’s choice of insurance.Considering that all citizens are covered and all of them are entitled to equal health care services, freedom of choices is pretty much taken care of.Considering that all Europeans are covered, there is freedom of choice. The only requirement is for those going to Italy; they have to acquire health insurance, otherwise, it will not be possible for one to get a permit of stay.Percentage of Population Insured
UninsuredThese statistics go by years. In 2003, 62% of Americans who were not elderly got private insurance which was sponsored by the employer. 5% bought the insurance individually while 15% enrolled in insurance programs provided by the public like Medicaid, (Chua, 2006). 18% of the people were not insured.There are about 30000 people in San Marino and all of them are covered.In estimation, there is 15% of the population gets health insurance from the private sector as a complement.Overall Health of the Population (excellent, good, fair)The overall health is good. The rates of mortality in infants have fallen; smoking among adults has also fallen from 33.5% in 1980 to 17.5% in 2003, (Chua, 2006).Excellent.Excellent. This is attributed to the fact that it ranked as the second best in terms of health care services by the WHO health care ranking in 2000.Li...