National Health Services

Quality, Health Care, Rationing, National Health Service, NIH, Rationing, Private health care providers, Managed Care, Commodity.

A little over 55 years ago, health care in the United Kingdom was a luxury that not everyone could afford. The need for free health care was widely recognized, but it was impossible to achieve without the support or resources of the state. The National Health Service (NHS) became reality on 5 July 1948. Poor people who previously may have gone without medical treatment had access to health care services.

The NHS is financed almost exclusively from taxation.á John Sussex in Research in Healthcare Financial Management explains that the NHS is largely tax-funded, with as much as ninety-eight percent of NHS operating costs being met through taxation and just two percent from charges on patients - mainly for prescription medicines and dental treatment. Sussex adds that NHS hospitals

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care hospitals, organizations providing care for the mentally ill, entities assisting people with learning disabilities and the elderly.á To become a 'provider' in the internal market, health organizations became NHS trusts. These trusts were in reality organizations with their own management teams in competition with one another. By 1995, all public health care in the U.K. was provided by NHS trusts.á Problems A clear indication of the problems facing patients in the NHS involves the growth of private health care providers. Despite the fact that the NHS is by far the largest health care provider in the United Kingdom, there have been recent increases in the proportion of the population seeking private health care insurance. Robert McMaster in Journal of Economic Issues writes that a small but increasing proportion of the population is willing to pay out of pocket for private health care, or is seeking private health care insurance. These patients often question both the quality and the timeliness of the services available through the NHS. They are willing to pay for the privilege of not having their health services rationed and managed (McMaster 769). Ciaran O'Boyle and Richard Cole in British Medical Journal confirm
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1575
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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