US and UK healthcare systems

US and UK Healthcare Systems
Name
Institutional Affiliation
US and UK Healthcare Systems
These systems are prominent in the world and have similarities as well as differences with regards to different aspects. On the one hand, the population health in both systems is lower than those in nations like Sweden and Japan. In particular, the US and UK health systems have higher infant mortality and lower life expectancy rates than the Japanese and Swedish models (Ham, 2005). Patients in both systems primarily depend on private health insurance, unlike other systems, which rely on taxes and labor input. The number of health professionals (nurses and doctors) has also grown in both systems over the years. However, the US system has a higher growth rate in physician and nurse numbers than the UK since it is the most diverse and attractive even for international practitioners (Maier et al., 2016).
On the other hand, these two systems are different since the US spends approximately 15% of its GDP (gross domestic product) on healthcare, while the UK spends around 8% (Ham, 2005; Jorgensen & Kefalas, 2016). This high cost of medical care in the US poses significant challenges for the nation’s residents. For instance, more US residents than UK residents reveal that they have difficulty accessing good health insurance plans. Additionally, the cost of drugs in the US healthcare system is higher than that in the UK mainly due to wholesaler and pharmacy margins. For instance, in America, the wholesaler and pharmacy margins are at 3 and 22%, while in the UK they are at 12% and 2%, respectively of the retail cost (Jorgensen & Kefalas, 2016).

The US healthcare system is, therefore, worse than the UK one despite it performing well in clinical service delivery and fulfilling patient needs. This system is the worst mainly because of its high expenditure levels, which do not bring good value for money spent (Ham, 2005).
References
Ham, C. (2005). Money can’t buy you satisfaction. BMJ, 330(7491), 597-599. doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7491.597
Jørgensen, J., & Kefalas, P. (2016). A price comparison of recently launched proprietary pharmaceuticals in the UK and the US. Journal of Market Access & Health Policy, 4(1), 32754. doi:10.3402/jmahp.v4.32754
Maier, C. B., Barnes, H., Aiken, L. H., & Busse, R. (2016). Descriptive, cross-country analysis of the nurse practitioner workforce in six countries: size, growth, physician substitution potential. BMJ Open, 6(9), e011901. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2016-011901