Should The Government Play A Role In Health Care Provision?

In by far the majority of countries, governments play a role in the provision or funding of Health Services. Although the nature of public sector involvement is often a source of fierce political debate, it is presumed that governments need to play a role in the provision of healthcare. Perhaps the most captivating justification for the government to intervene in healthcare is that healthcare, like education, is deemed to be a basic human right or entitlement.An individual’s health is inevitably linked to his or her well-being. Most would believe that it would not be fair for the poor to be denied healthcare because they could not afford it, and think that the state seeks to ensure that the endangered in society are provided with at least the
‘Comprehensive, universal and free, from cradle to grave’ was the stated aim of the National Health Services (NHS) when it was established in 1948. It was launched with the main objective that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of ones wealth (The NHS in England, 2015). Ranked as one of the top healthcare systems’ in the world, NHS provides free healthcare to all the residents of the United Kingdom. The aim of NHS is to ensure that anyone can receive the medical care they need, regardless of their age, financial situations or circumstances. It offers a range of services to provide the general public with suitable healthcare, depending of the nature of your illness you may be treated by a doctor, dentist or optician and receive treatment at a hospital or walk-in centre or receive advice from a pharmacist or the NHS direct telephone
It is often argued in economics that a government owned business is comparatively less methodical than a privately owned business. Evidence in support of this statement can be found in many economy related articles. However there are still debts, as the NHS uses the Private Finance Initiative (PFI’s)- where private investors and contractors build the hospitals and provide maintenance services, in short a method of attaining funds from private investors – to go into long-term agreement with investment companies. (Triggle, 2011)
Since, the British government doesn’t spend much on the NHS, it cannot cope up with the hospital maintenance bills and thus, taxpayers do not trust where their money is going. Therefore only “few citizens are willing to pay more in taxes for their health service” Bagehot (2015) due to lack of systems and structural maintenance.
Notwithstanding the demand for NHS services, the government spending on NHS has not been remarkable.
For this reason the economy may encounter a shift in resources from public sectors to private sectors