Two-tier health care is a situation that arises when a basic government-provided health care system provides basic, medical necessities while a secondary tier of care exists for those who can purchase additional health care services or receive better quality and faster access.
Most countries have both public and privately funded health care, but the degree to which this creates a quality differential depends on the way the two systems are managed, funded, and regulated. Some publicly funded universal health care systems deliver excellent service and the private system tends to be small and not highly differentiated. In other, typically poorer countries, the public health system is underfunded and over stretched, offering opportunities for private companies to deliver better-quality, albeit more expensive health care coverage.
Read more about Two-tier Health Care: Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States
Famous quotes containing the words health and/or care:
“While I am to crawl upon this Planet, I would willingly enjoy the health at least of an insect.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“As to the rout that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that some individuals suffer. When so much general productive exertion is the consequence of luxury, the nation does not care though there are debtors in gaol; nay, they would not care though their creditors were there too.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)