The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998/Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso/H/Health_service/INFOTEXT

Text File | 1992-09-02 | 2KB | 39 lines

Government provision of medical care on a
national scale. From 1948 the UK has had a
National Health Service (NHS) which includes
hospital care, but nominal fees are made for
ordinary doctors' prescriptions, eye tests
and spectacles, and dental treatment, except
for children and people on very low incomes.
Private health schemes such as BUPA are
increasingly used in the UK as the NHS has
become overstretched. UK expenditure on
public health services was 20,569 million,
with an average of 317,000 beds occupied in
hospitals. The number of available hospital
beds in public hospitals decreased by 25%
between 1971 and 1987, while the number of
private hospital beds increased by 157%. In
1990 Third World hospitals received on
average 75% of the countries' health budget
(from 41% in Pakistan to 96% in Sierra Leone)
but serve only a small minority of the
countries' people. (State and local
governments provide some public health
services.) The USA provides care through
private physicians and hospitals who are paid
by the federally subsidized schemes Medicare
and Medicaid. The Medicare health-insurance
plan provides outpatient care for the elderly
and disabled (towards which patients pay a
share), and since 1985, fees for Medicare
patients to join health-maintenance
organizations (HMOs, covering visits to a
group of doctors and hospital fees). The
Medicaid state plan is paid to the state by
the federal government for people unable to
afford private care. US private health
schemes include Blue Cross (established 1929)
and Blue Shield (established 1917), as well
as other insurance companies.