Essay on Universal Health Care (UHC)

Health care is one of the most important industries all over the world as it deals with the vital questions of human health. Conversely, health has been the core condition of a satisfactory existence, which is well-being. For this reason, it’s no surprise that such a thing as universal health care (UHC) available equally for all citizens of the country will seem appealing, including even those countries that are not able to provide it.

The health care sector in the U.S. is one of the biggest in the economy of the whole country, which takes almost a fifth of the total gross domestic product (GDP) of the country according to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This shows that this sector takes a rather significant place and is expected to keep growing and achieve tangible progress.

According to the statistical data, since 2000 the number of children who died before reaching the age of five years old has significantly decreased, almost by half compared to the last statistical calculations and is now over 5.6 million. Within the last five years, the longevity reached 71 year, while the diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis have receded. More and more children are vaccinated each year.

Nevertheless, there’s a huge disparity between the results we currently have and the potential possibilities we still can derive from medicine. A great number of people all over the world still do not have access to the resources the World Health Organization (WHO), involving screening for cancer, antenatal care, insecticide-treated bednets, vaccinations against diphtheria and many others. Safe surgery is not accessible for over five billions of people all over the world.

Along with it, we can observe unsatisfactory statistics among Indians and Chinese who get wrong diagnosis of their illnesses in the local clinics they visit (up to 26% of patients). Annually over 800 million people all over the world spend about 10% of their income on medical supplies, while 180 million spend up to 25% or even more. In doing so, only a small percentage of them get positive results, which is just a waste of the resources for the rest of them.

Death rate may become lower in all countries with integration of universal basic health care. Universal health care is the key solution to many problems of the medical area as it provides society with many benefits, first of all its affordability and effectiveness from a practical standpoint.

Universal health care unites the following targets to make it significant. First, such a health care approach makes medical services available equally for everyone who may need to get them, not depending on the annual income and ability to pay for the services. Second, universal health care enables all patients to get high quality services and improve their health as a result of the provided services. And third, it fosters financial economy for all citizens because the services are affordable.

In many poor countries, people cover all medical charges at their own expense. With universal basic health care, citizens of even a poor country can get financial support without the need to wait until the country gets richer. Overall, each country can allocate a budget to provide people with the resources on health. For instance, the annual health expenditures in Thailand per person are $200 on average, which gives almost the same good results as those reported by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development).

Adoption of some affordable person-centered treatment will help advance progress of the basic universal health care, which is of great importance for ageing people. They will be able to get help of all kinds when they need it without financial expenditures they may not be able to afford.

One of the most common reasons why a poor country doesn’t attempt to launch universal health care is, of course, poverty. Over the last three decades, the health and economy experts have studied the results and experiences of the countries where the main part of the population has been successfully getting the benefits of the universal health care at a low cost. These countries include China, Cuba, Sri Lanka, and Kerala, the Indian state. In the years ahead UHC has been successfully spread around the world, being carefully verified by economists and health experts who observe positive results of universal health care without monetary losses for the economy like in Thailand that has been supported by the government in the purpose of providing an affordable health care services for all citizens. As a result of universal health care practices in this country, the level of mortality among children and infants has fallen significantly, 11 per 1000 infants in total. Besides, the longevity in the country has increased to 70-plus years, which is a significant progress for a developing country.

The updates introduced by Thailand significantly lowered the mortality rate in the country and increased the average life expectancy up to 74 years. This is a great achievement for the nation.

However, the United States as well as other developed countries guards against universal health care, while less developed ones have such a practice that helps many people get good medical services and are protected from any health risks or financial implications.