government health policy essay

How is the current government health policy seeking to shape the NHS into a more 21st century service?

After the Second World War the British government started an overall welfare reform according to the program Cradle to grave. One of its results was the creation of public health care system, known as National Health Service, or NHS. Since then, the acronym has become world famous, and in most English-speaking countries is considered synonymous with the highest quality in medical services.

British NHS was the world’s first governmental organization providing universal free health care. Today the time-tested system is still successful, but its stability is now under question. Globalization and increased cost of medicine has led to serious structural problems. European scientific periodicals provide an increasing number of reports about lowering treatment standards in some hospitals in the UK. In addition, many high-income British families prefer private health insurance, and a growing number of employers provide commercial insurance policies to their employees.

The existing drawbacks are nevertheless outweighed by the internationally recognized high quality and absolute availability of care to the population, because British laws dynamically respond to changes in the society of the 21st century.



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