The United Kingdom & Ireland: A Comparison of Healthcare Systems

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(92%) The United Kingdom and Ireland, a set of European countries connected by a common border, share at least one other trait, and that is, they both have universal healthcare systems. The majority would expect the two countries’ health system to operate in a similar manner, due to their close proximity and the fact that they are both universal, but in fact the opposite is true. The Irish healthcare system and structure is very different from the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (Gold, 2011). A composition of four constituent countries, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom (UK) is a sovereign country that is commonly referred to as Great Britain (or Britain) (Johnson & Stoskopf, 2010, p. 85). Located at the northwest corner of Europe, the United Kingdom has experienced one of the most prosperous periods of sustained growth in all of Europe, exhibiting a relatively steady rise in maturity and enterprise development for over 150 years (Johnson & Stoskopf, 2010, p. 87). This is a reversal of a trend seen in the first half of the 20th century where according to the CIA World Fact Book, the United Kingdom’s role as a world power was seriously depleted between two world wars, followed by the Irish withdrawal from the union. The second half of the century watched the slow dismantling of the British Empire and the United Kingdom rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous European nation (Johnson & Stoskopf, 2010, p. 85). A country stepped in tradition and institutionalism, Britain is one of the only countries that has no common set of governing documents, i.e. Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Constitution. Instead governmental roots can be traced back to the Magna Carta of 1215 whic... ... middle of paper ... ...he clinical effectiveness of pharmaceuticals and the process for calculating cost effectiveness should not prove to be too difficult. The problem lies in the fact that the Food and Drug Administration does not have the power to prevent a drug from making it to market if it is found to be ineffective in relation to cost. Additional barriers stem from opposition from consumers who say the purchase decision should be the consumers’ choice. In the United Kingdom, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) uses a $50,000 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) threshold for access under its National Health System (NHS). If a drug does not meet this threshold then it is denied. The value of $50,000 is substantially lower than recent estimates in the United States that put the value of a life year at close to $175,000 (Vernon, Goldberg, Dash, Muralimohan, 2007).

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