Public and Private Healthcare System in Terms of both Quality and Cost: A Review

Abstract

A public healthcare system is one in which the government governs and controls all healthcare services. It offers high-quality medical care to all citizens, regardless of their ability to pay. The benefits of public healthcare against the private healthcare system showed that the former reduces overall healthcare and administrative costs. It helps in standardising the services and creates a healthier workforce, prevents future costs, and guides the population to make better choices. In contrast, private healthcare maintains a business-driven culture and creates unfair competition for non-profit organizations. It considers healthcare as a commodity rather than a right of every citizen and may use its considerable economic power to exert undue influence on healthcare policies. Countries with the best healthcare in the world provide free or universal healthcare. These countries regard healthcare as a social good rather than an economic good and provide universal care, which means that healthcare must be affordable and accessible to all the citizens. Considering the ethical issues in the for-profit healthcare system, as well as the drawback of private health insurers, it is advocated that health insurance must be administered by non-profit healthcare providers.

An Overview of the Medical Tourism in Qatar: Where Do We Stand?

“…For anyone who is permitted to reside in Qatar legally and have a valid health card, they pay between 10 and 20 percent of the total cost while receiving treatment at HMC. Any resident with a valid long-term visa but with no valid health card must pay for healthcare services in full [43].…”

Drivers of the Australian Health System towards Health Care for All: A Scoping Review and Qualitative Synthesis

“…Improving communication and continuity of care and confidence in the system is imperative, significantly improving access to address the health disparities among disadvantaged groups [182,183]. Australia's ACCHS model improved access to culturally responsive services through intersectoral collaboration, prevention, and promotive services [7,184,185]. Culturally competent care from providers and increased health literacy of priority populations have potential to improve health service utilisation [169].…”

“…Such high health system performance is possible through its Medicare program, a universal public health insurance scheme favouring values of universality and equity [6]. The provision of Medicare allows all Australian citizens and permanent residents to access health services at little or no cost [7], providing free inpatient care and medication subsidies as defined in the Medical Benefits Schedule and Pharmaceuticals Benefit Schedule [8]. The federal policy also supports private health insurance (PHI) initiatives by ensuring greater access to hospital care and allied health services through PHIs that are not included in the Medicare program (e.g., dental and physiotherapy services) [9,10].…”