Compare and Contrast Healthcare System in China and US

Name: Institution: Course Code: Date: Compare and Contrast Healthcare System in China and US Introduction China and US have two different healthcare systems which are influenced by their health insurance approaches. Partly, these differences stem from the inherent factor of different economic models pertinent to the two countries. The US has adopted a capitalistic economic model whilst China is communistic. Each of their healthcare model must be aligned with the economic model of the country. There are also other factors that significantly affect these two-healthcare systems. For example, China has a population of 1.3 billion while the US it has only a population of 320 million people and creating a system that covers the Chinese population would be more challenging, at least in theory. Chinese mortality rate is 7.8 people for every 1000 people compared to US of 8.4 people for every 1000 people as at 2017. Despite the issues that underly the two models, the mortality rates statistics shows that the US system could be less effective than Chinese system which was announced in 2009. The Chinese government has categorized its population into ‘urbanicity and employment status.’ This meant that it created a three-tier system to net all the people in the country. The categories; The Basic Medical Insurance for Urban Employees, The Basic Medical Insurance for Urban Residents and The New Rural Cooperative Medical Insurance which was impelled by the SARS outbreak CITATION YuH15 \l 1033 (Yu). The Obama administration passed the affordable care act that focus on better public health delivery through extensive and less-conditional coverage for the people. Each of these healthcare systems is influenced by three main themes: national objectives, the structure of the government, and economic conditions. They two countries are centrally different in their national objectives, the structure of the government, and economic conditions and this has translated to different healthcare models. National objectives In each of the two countries, the healthcare system is designed by the political class and it has to resonate with their strategic national objectives. In the communist China, the primary national objective that necessitated the 2009 healthcare reform was to shield its citizens from the medical shocks that came with expensive medical care. Previously, people in Chinese tended to save for medical expenses because they had to cover their medical bills. The government developed the new structure to cover its citizens such that they would allow them to channel their savings into other things. Prior to this system, everyone in China had to pay for their medical bills unlike in the US where a person could be treated and then the cost would be covered later by the taxpayers, hospitals etc. if he/she was unable to pay. Therefore, the American healthcare system was designed to ‘increase the number of people with health insurance in order to encourage people to seek preventive treatment and to reduce the burden on providers caused by people receiving care without paying for it CITATION Ada12 \l 1033 (Powell). The primary objective of the US government was to ensure the people could receive quality healthcare at a lower cost. Structure of the govern...