Learning From Differences In The United States And United Kingdom Healthcare Systems To Avoid Disaster

The purpose of this thesis is to identify issues within both the United States and United Kingdom healthcare systems to learn from each other. The main issues identified within the United States healthcare system are the exponential increase in costs for the government, hospitals, and patients, the fragmentation of the players within the industry (including the government, hospitals, physicians, and insurance companies), and that initiatives set out by the government are not reaching expected outcomes. The issues within the United Kingdom healthcare system are the aging population, patient access, increased wait times, over-utilization by patients, and that the system is operating at a devastating financial deficit. The methods utilized are a literature review and personal interviews. The result of this thesis is the identification of the issues within each system and the reasons behind those issues. The secondary result is the potential ability to learn from some of the issues each country has had as our healthcare systems are becoming more similar.