Introduction
In Health Care Systems of the Developed World, Duance Matcha describes the various factors of the economic, societal, and political nature that affect the health care systems of the countries belonging to the developed world in different ways. The author’s purpose is to relay the information about the factors of the status quo of the modern health care systems in the developed countries and to convince the readers that there are a number of issues concerning the integrity and the differences between the different systems.
Overview of the main ideas
The countries studied by Matcha in Health Care Systems of the Developed World include The United States, The United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Sweden, and Japan. On one hand, all of those countries are classified as belonging to the developed world. However, on the other hand, it is important that they also all have slightly different health care systems.
Thus, the health care systems represented in the study vary from the market-maximized to market-minimized from the economic perspective and are dependent on the gender, racial and social class factors from the societal point of view. Considering the political environment of the majority of the developed countries, Matcha believes that political attitudes and confrontation between the conservative forces and their oppositions will also become more influential in terms of changing the system of health care. As a result, according to Matcha, conservative forces can be expected to encourage privatization in the sector of health care to make it more market-regulated.
However, regardless of the political background, the structural demands of the health care systems of developed countries are very similar. That is why it is more important to analyze differences between the health care systems in those countries to understand which strategies should be further implemented in health care and which should be eschewed. In this context, Matcha refuses the belief that the introduction of computer-based technologies is the only common feature that will lead to the integration of the health care systems of the developed countries.
First of all, Matcha reflects on the subject of the market orientation of the health care systems within the spectrum between the systems of The United Kingdom and The United States. Matcha criticizes the American health care system on a few issues. Most importantly, it is financed through a number of different organizations, including the insurance companies, managed health care organizations (privately owned hospitals and clinics) and some of the governmentally sponsored programs. Overall, in comparison to the other developed countries, Matcha suggests that the prevalence of private ownership of the health care system of The United States can be associated with the lesser access to the medical care among the citizens.
In the United Kingdom, the model of the health care system called National Health Service (NHS) is designed to provide each of the citizens with the health care package. Hence, it has an advantage of the government paying for the health service of its citizens, and the expenses are covered by the general taxes.
However, Matcha defines the significant disadvantages of such health care system, which include the large queues for the treatment and, even more importantly, the fact that the system is too much centralized and dependent on the government. Nevertheless, the similar model of the organizational structure of health care was later followed by Sweden and Canada. However, in the latter, due to the territorial differences, the system is more decentralized, and there is more room for health care system management within the community. Matcha reasonably suggests that such approach neutralizes one of the flaws typical for some other health care systems in the developed countries.
Critical analysis
One of the most significant advantages of the comparison of the different health care systems created by Matcha is the variety of the criteria the author includes in the research. For defying the difference of accessibility of the medical care and health service in the developed countries, Matcha uses the sociological factors, such as social class, sex, age, race, and ethnicity.
Meanwhile, political and economic factors are analyzed to identify the reasons for the certain issues in the different health care systems. In such a way, the author creates a comprehensive background of the modern historical context of the health care system in the developed countries. Moreover, the book describes the ways, in which systems used in different countries influenced one another throughout the process of their historical development.
However, Matcha also provides the possible paths of the further development of the health care systems. The author’s prediction is that the countries of the developed world can be all expected to accept the very similar model of health care system since the model existing in The United States shows more flaws than the others. Nevertheless, the author did not succeed in proving that the political situations in those countries will be a lesser factor than the need for the structural integrity of the health care systems.
Conclusion
Overall, the book provides the comprehensive analysis of the historical context of the health care systems development in the first-world countries. The author supports with evidence the original idea that, although of the industrialized society will face certain challenges in the twenty-first century, there are some signs of the new integration between the health care systems of the different countries.