Universal Health Care System of Iran and England: Compare and Contrast Essay
“Give people what they need: food, medicine, clean air, pure water, trees and grass, pleasant homes to live in, some hours of work, more hours of leisure. Don't ask who deserves it. Every human being deserves it” (Howard Zinn, ‘Marx in Soho: A Play on History’). Health is considered as one of the major rights of humans and thus all people should have access to resources needed for health care. “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity” (WHO, 1947). Health systems are complex entities with many different stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, health care providers, purchaser organizations, regulators, the government and the broader public. The UK and the Persia health care services are great examples of publicly funded and privately funded health care systems respectively. By looking back on history, assessing and analyzing key findings from a branch of economics concerned with single factors and the effects of individual decisions, we can see the significant difference between the two approaches to health care structures.
Iran’s health care network started since 1985 with the aim of ensuring equitable access to care for all members of society especially for rural and deprived areas. For example, health houses are village-based units or rural health care groups that cover 1500 people in average in deprived areas. In November of last year, the General Health Insurance Law of the country was approved by the Islamic Consultative Assembly, which was followed by the establishment of the health insurance organization in the country. The purpose of the organization is to address the need for health and medical care for accidents in the form of universal insurance for government employees and optional insurers. On average, every Iranian visit a general practitioner twice a year and a specialist doctor 1.8 a year. Also, 3 out of every 7 Iranians are hospitalized annually, and 6.5 percent of gross national income is spent on medicine. Accordingly, the average number of referrals to general medicine in Iran is lower than in similar countries, but the rate of referral to specialist medicine and the cost of medication for medicine are higher than in similar countries. However, the waiting queue is very low, for example, you can see the doctor today and get surgery tomorrow, which is so quick.
Mental problems and smoking are among the major problems that WHO facing with. Cigarette smoking is the largest preventable cause of death worldwide. According to WHO, tobacco related death was 5 million people in the year 2008, and would reach 8 million a year by 2030. Currently, one person is killed every six seconds by tobacco. Cigarettes in Iran are extremely cheap compared to Europe. A pack of local cigarette cost less than a euro, and in big cities you will also be able to find tobacco, papers and filters for those who like to roll their own cigarettes. The main reason for all of that is that Iran is one of the 14 countries in the world that don’t impose any special tax on tobacco so 50 to 55000 people per year die in Iran from tobacco-related illnesses. The cost of treatment of related disease in Persia is estimated at about 20tri Reals annually which is something around £1 billion.
In Iran, the actual statistics of people with mental health problems and other social problems that need treatment are not properly stated, but the question is what is the actual number of people with mental and psychological problems in Iran? Mental health disorders, refers to a wide range of mental health conditions that affect your mood, thinking and behavior. Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors. Many people have mental health concerns from time to time. But a mental health concern becomes a mental illness when ongoing signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect your ability to function. The most common mental illness is depression among women and addiction among men in Iran. After cardiovascular disease and road traffic accidents, mental illness s most prevalent in Iran, with one in four families suffering from mental illness. According to a survey by the American Gallup Institute, which surveyed a number of citizens in 140 different countries, in 2018, Iran was one of the world's saddest countries. The Ministry of Health has reported that 23.6 percent of the population in Iran has one type of mental disorder, which is in line with the global average. The problem is Iran facing a severe shortage of hospitals for neuropsychiatric
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