Comparison of Health Care Systems: United States and Iceland
Kamala Sapkota
Florida International University
Comparison of Health Care Systems: United States and Iceland
Introduction
For this assignment of comparison of health care systems, I choose Iceland and United States. For a long time I was interested in Iceland as a country itself, I love the weather, the landscapes and wanted to visit one day, this time I had a chance to learn and explore more about its health system and to compare with United States of America (USA). Iceland is a volcanic island which is in between north Atlantic and Artic Ocean approximately a size of a state of United States, Virginia.() Iceland has a population of 330,000 (World Health Organization …show more content…
Both countries have different
Health Care Personnel and Facilities United States. In USA the physician density was 24.22/10,000 population in 2009 (WHO, 2015). The health care facilities are divided in short term facilities and long term care facilities. Short term facilities include public, community, teaching and hospitals whereas long term facilities include rehabilitation, mental health facilities and services that deal with respiratory diseases. Hospitals may be profit or non-profit organizations (“Health Care”, 2015). Iceland. There is one health care center in each health care district which is responsible for preventive medicine, general practice and child health care. In Iceland every person is supposed to have own General Practitioner (GP) and needs a referral to go to hospital unless it is an emergency. There are three types of hospitals first is the specialized teaching hospitals which performs surgery and treats specific diseases, second one is the general hospital and lastly community hospital (“Healthcare in Iceland”, 2004-2016). According to a report published by WHO, there were 37.33 physicians/10000 people and 158.79 nursing and midwifery personal/10000 people in 2010 …show more content…
Iceland does not have any private hospitals or clinics, USA mostly have hospitals that are profit based. Also the number of physicians in USA is less than in Iceland. In USA mostly you do not need to have a general physician but in Iceland you do need to have one assigned GP.
Conclusion: Access and Inequality Issues Since, the health care in Iceland is universal, all citizens despite of race, age, culture or economic status have equal access to health care whereas in USA still you can notice a disparity in health care access. It is said that there is an inconsistency in access and quality care among poor, Hispanics, Black, Asian and White people. Still poor people get worse care than high income people for 80% of measures (“Disparities in Healthcare”,
Kamala Sapkota
Florida International University
Comparison of Health Care Systems: United States and Iceland
Introduction
For this assignment of comparison of health care systems, I choose Iceland and United States. For a long time I was interested in Iceland as a country itself, I love the weather, the landscapes and wanted to visit one day, this time I had a chance to learn and explore more about its health system and to compare with United States of America (USA). Iceland is a volcanic island which is in between north Atlantic and Artic Ocean approximately a size of a state of United States, Virginia.() Iceland has a population of 330,000 (World Health Organization …show more content…
Both countries have different
Health Care Personnel and Facilities United States. In USA the physician density was 24.22/10,000 population in 2009 (WHO, 2015). The health care facilities are divided in short term facilities and long term care facilities. Short term facilities include public, community, teaching and hospitals whereas long term facilities include rehabilitation, mental health facilities and services that deal with respiratory diseases. Hospitals may be profit or non-profit organizations (“Health Care”, 2015). Iceland. There is one health care center in each health care district which is responsible for preventive medicine, general practice and child health care. In Iceland every person is supposed to have own General Practitioner (GP) and needs a referral to go to hospital unless it is an emergency. There are three types of hospitals first is the specialized teaching hospitals which performs surgery and treats specific diseases, second one is the general hospital and lastly community hospital (“Healthcare in Iceland”, 2004-2016). According to a report published by WHO, there were 37.33 physicians/10000 people and 158.79 nursing and midwifery personal/10000 people in 2010 …show more content…
Iceland does not have any private hospitals or clinics, USA mostly have hospitals that are profit based. Also the number of physicians in USA is less than in Iceland. In USA mostly you do not need to have a general physician but in Iceland you do need to have one assigned GP.
Conclusion: Access and Inequality Issues Since, the health care in Iceland is universal, all citizens despite of race, age, culture or economic status have equal access to health care whereas in USA still you can notice a disparity in health care access. It is said that there is an inconsistency in access and quality care among poor, Hispanics, Black, Asian and White people. Still poor people get worse care than high income people for 80% of measures (“Disparities in Healthcare”,