Define a single-payer system and identify a country where it is used.
A single-payer system means a healthcare provision plan where the state, instead of the private insurers, pays the entire costs related to treatment of citizens. Many players within the healthcare industry normally fear that such a system has the capability of reducing the benefits of private players in the industry. The private health services are significantly contracted by this kind of system. Additionally, it is always argued that with this type of healthcare system, the government may end up being the sole employer of all the human resources within the industry. It is vital to, thus, note that the term single-payer simply refers to the method of funding, where the healthcare services for the people are paid for by a government body from one fund kitty.
Canada is a good example of a nation that uses the single-payer system. The entire healthcare system in Canada is financed by the government of the country. Citizens of Canada get treatment free of charge and most of these healthcare services are offered to them by the private hospitals. This Canadian healthcare system was put into operation by the Canada Health Act of 1984. The Government of Canada usually makes sure that it achieves high quality of healthcare based on the federal standards.
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Using demonstrated research findings, describe the strengths and weaknesses of a single-payer healthcare system.
The first strength of a single-payer system is that it enables all citizens of a country to get health services since the costs are covered by their government. All citizens of Canada, for instance, access full medical services to satisfy their health needs. Moreover, the single-payer healthcare system reduces the amount of paper-work and bureaucracy that usually affects hospitals while attending to patients who have to pays for their medical services by themselves. Consequently, the speed of healthcare provision in hospitals is significantly enhanced hence improving the standard of health of the citizens. Furthermore, since the single-payer healthcare system involves dealing with the government as the only financer of medical services for the entire public, the resultant economies scale gives the state a high bargaining power, which makes the cost of healthcare quite low. The operational costs for the hospitals are also significantly reduced because administrative duties are cut down implying lean staff members for the facilities. These are some of the notable and research-based strengths of the single-payer healthcare system.
The single-payer healthcare system has huge weaknesses too, arising from the fact that it is controlled by the government. In this system of healthcare, all the human resources in the industry like the physicians and pharmacists are employees of the government. Therefore, the private sector is highly limited in this kind of circumstance. The private sector lack the financial incentive for innovating new medical service provision techniques hence leading to a very low standard of healthcare in the country. There is research and development in this kind of healthcare system. Overall, the healthcare system of such a country fails to grow because of the lack of an active private sector in the industry.
Based on your current situation in terms of healthcare coverage, explain how a single-payer plan would affect how you receive healthcare. Do you favor a single-payer approach? Why, or why not?
My current situation is insurance by the employer. The single-payer system would affect the way I receive medical services since it does not involve the insurance company. This means that the insurance cover provided by my employer would become useless. However, I would still be able to access healthcare services at a very low cost. I do not favor the single-payer healthcare system because it kills the private sector and makes the standards of medical services provided to go low. Moreover, it makes the medical courses at the university not attractive to students since there is no opportunity for working as a private health provider in a firm. Government salaries are very poor and people like working for private companies. It means that with such a healthcare system, there is a lot of brain drain of the country’s healthcare professionals to other nations where they can work for the private companies. And be paid well. I do not favor this single-payer system because it leads to high taxation of the citizens. For the government to be able to pay for the medical services of all citizens, they have to be taxed at a very high rate. Another reason for not favoring the single-payer system is that it encourages laziness among the citizens. When know that they can get healthcare attention for free in any hospital, they become lazy and cannot work hard to generate income. However, when citizens are left to pay for their medical services, they work hard to generate income in order to afford their healthcare bills.
If you were to design a single-payer system, explain how you would address the challenges.
If I were to design a single-payer system, I would provide high financial incentives for the work of research and development in the industry in order to boost innovations and elevate the standards of healthcare services in the country. I would also offer the healthcare pay high salaries for the healthcare professions. It is important to note that I would also give the private hospitals the freedom and right to employ their medical practitioners and pay them so that we have both the public and private employees in the industry. This would give the healthcare professionals the choices of either working for the government or the private sector. Moreover, I would let the citizens pay for some small percentage of the medical services they get in the hospital so that the whole cost is not fully settled by the government.
