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
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“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
—Constitution of the World Health Organization.
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