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The United Kingdom is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. It has a population of 62,262,000 people and a reported GDP of $2.260 trillion Great Britain Pounds.

The United Kingdom provides public healthcare to all permanent residents, about 58 million people. Healthcare coverage is free at the point of need, and is paid for by general taxation. About 18% of a citizen’s income tax goes towards healthcare, which is about 4.5% of the average citizen’s income. Overall, around 8.4 percent of the UK's gross domestic product is spent on healthcare (an amount of around 0.18984 trillion GBP). UK also has a growing private healthcare sector that is still much smaller than the public sector.

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The National Health Service (NHS) was founded in 1946, and is responsible for the public healthcare sector of the UK. Before this, healthcare in UK was generally available only to the wealthy, unless one was able to obtain free treatment through charity or teaching hospitals.

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Since the 1980s, total healthcare expenditure as a percentage of GDP has in general trended up. The average per person health spending is $3,377 compared to $9,200 in the US. Also, the private sector for health insurance has taken on a more prominent role, accounting for about 16.7% of healthcare spending in 1999, up from 10.6% in 1980. According to a report by Towers Watson, medical trend rates in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2011 were 6.0%, 9.3%, 8.8% and 9.5%, respectively.

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Their as certain disadvantageous side effects to the government’s participation in the healthcare system. Their active role in healthcare weakens the functionality of market mechanisms. In addition, the tight control undertaken in regards to medical expenses has resulted in a lack of medical resources, such as equipment, doctors and nurses in public hospitals. Finally, with free medical services provided to all citizens, the public tend to make extensive and even excessive use of these medical services. As such, it is common to encounter long lines in public hospitals.

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In a study that compares 7 industrialized countries, UK was ranked 2nd, while the US consistently underperformed in most areas of health care relative to other countries. The US healthcare system is the most costly in the world. Of the countries studied, it was the only one that did not have a universal health insurance system. The US is last in terms of access, patient safety, coordination, efficiency, and equity.

The US has the highest healthcare spending in the world. Of the 15% of GDP the US spends on healthcare annually (that’s about $2.2 trillion dollars), around 50% is spent by the government (around $1.1 trillion). By contrast, the UK spends only around 8% of its GDP on healthcare. The UK National Health Service cares for 58 million people (100% of the population of England), where the US’s public healthcare currently covers about 83 million (around 28% of the US population). Also, US healthcare sets age and income requirements (Medicaid or

Medicare) on public healthcare coverage, whereas UK made public health care accessible to all UK permanent residents by making it free at the point of need.

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7. UK Life Expectancy and Leading causes of death

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7. UK Life Expectancy and Leading causes of death

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82.3 years for men and 85.8 years for woman
The top causes of death in the UK reported in 2016 were the following:

1. Dementia and Alzheimer disease.

2. Ischaemic heart diseases.

3. Cerebrovascular diseases.

4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases.

5. Lung cancer.

US Life Expectancy and Leading causes of death- declining
76.1 years for men and 81.1 years for woman
The top causes of death in the US reported in 2016 were the following:

1. Heart Disease

2. Cancer

3. Unintentional Injuries

4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases.

5. Stroke

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The UK's health care system is one of the most efficient in the world, according to a study of seven industrialized countries. The Commonwealth Fund report looked at five areas of performance - quality, efficiency, access to care, equity and healthy lives, The Netherlands ranked first overall, closely followed by the UK and Australia. UK performed well when it came to quality of care and access to care. The UK also ranked first in efficiency, which was measured by examining total national spending on healthcare as a percentage of GDP, as well as the amount spent on healthcare administration and insurance.

In regards to access to care, the study states: "The UK has relatively short waiting times for basic medical care and non-emergency access to services after hours, but has longer waiting times for specialist care and elective, non-emergency surgery."