I live in the UK where we have public healthcare (NHS) and private insurance. Personally I believe that healthcare should be free for all, unless it is for a medically unnecessary/cosmetic procedures. The NHS has its pros and its cons. The pros are obvious, but the cons are waiting times, staff/equipment shortages etc. I can ring up and see my GP the same day for free, yet I am still waiting to see a psychologist having been clinically depressed for 2 1/2 yrs!! Granted mental health services are the cinderella of all health services, but waiting lists are crazy for other things as well. Dentists don't get reimbursed enough from the NHS so less and less of them are willing to accept NHS patients for example.

As a student hoping to work in the healthcare system, I can see things from both perspectives. In the UK NICE looks at research to see whether it is cost effective for the NHS to provide certain services/medications. So certain life saving cancer drugs and alzheimer drugs, for example, are denied as too expensive. Obviously this creates media uproar, but the money pot is not infinite. Also PCTs (Primary care trusts who oversee the NHS budget in certain areas) decide what to spend their budget on, which can create a 'postcode lottery'. The most noted example of this is for IVF treatment: in some PCTs you can get 3 IVF treatments on the NHS, yet down the road in another PCT you may only be allowed 1 round of IVF.

Personally I think we could trim a lot of fat from the NHS if it was run more like a business (though without privatising it). For example, we have so many targets eg waiting times, patients seen, patients vaccinated for this and that. If Drs and other healthcare workers didn't have to spend so much time on paperwork and beauracracy (sp?) then they'd have more time to treat patients. If we had less pen pushers obsessing over targets, then their salaries could be spent on more ground level staff and treatments. Granted we need some managers as Drs aren't trained to run services, but to treat patients, but the numbers we currently have are excessive and most of them have no idea how the NHS works in practice and so put silly restrictions on things without understanding how things really work.

Anyway, those are a few of my thoughts. Clearly healthcare is an emotive subject, but for all the problems with our health service and for all it costs us, I truly couldn't imagine supporting a system whereby only the rich can afford healthcare. Good luck with your paper!

*Willow*