ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss national systems of health care delivery. The chapter examines the United States and the United Kingdom health care delivery systems. The United States national health care system is generally pictured as the prototypical example of a national health care system ruled by the 'invisible hand' of competition in the marketplace. Like most capitalist developed countries, the Soviet Union's national system of health care delivery is bureaucratically and geographically organised in a hierarchical manner, but the similarities end there. Medical geographers also need to examine alternative methods of analysis in the examination of national systems of health care delivery. Australia's political organisation is similar to that of Canada. It has a federal government referred to as the Commonwealth government, six States and one Territory. National health care delivery systems are the products of the people of a society and the value they place on themselves and others in their society.
