Health System Comparative Analysis: The United States and Uganda

Abstract

A comparison of international healthcare systems provides unique insights beyond those attainable through an ethnocentric analysis. Through a global health education program provided by Child Family Health International, we spent eight weeks as students of Dr. Geoffrey Anguyo, the Founder and Executive Director of the holistic-minded development organization Kigezi Healthcare Foundation (KIHEFO), located in the Kabale District of Uganda. This partnership motivated and guided this comparative analysis of the health systems in the United States and Uganda, through which we are able to derive a more robust understanding of health and healthcare than that which could be achieved by studying either country in isolation.

We begin with an overview of the structure and burden of disease in each respective country before further investigating prevalent topics in both healthcare systems including maternal health and child malnutrition. We find that differences in resources and primary health concerns derived from the oppression of the Global South by the Global North have shaped each of these healthcare systems to target distinct needs. However, both systems are united in their shared goal to improve the quality of life for their citizens, allowing us to draw connections and uplift from each country’s healthcare system general best-practices that can be molded to fit a country’s specific health needs. This study does not hold one system as superior to the other. Rather, through this comparison we seek to illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of both systems as they exist within their unique contexts to develop a stronger global understanding of health and healthcare.