National Health Program
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| Service overview | |
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| Formed | July 2, 1959 |
| Preceding Service |
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| Jurisdiction | Brazoria |
| Headquarters | Grand Llano |
| Employees | 1,072,890 (2021) |
| Annual budget | B$144 billion (2021) |
| Minister responsible | |
| Service executive |
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| Parent department | Department of Public Health and Welfare |
The National Health Program (NHP) is the publicly funded healthcare system in Brazoria which serves as the nation's main system of universal single-payer healthcare and is one of the main bodies within Brazoria's wider health care system. The NHP is one of the largest single-payer healthcare systems in the world and is the second largest in all of Anglo-America behind only the Continental Health Service in the United Commonwealth. The program is part of the Department of Public Health and Welfare which oversees the program and whose oversight and administration is headed by the Secretary of Public Health currently held by Brian Walker since 2019.
The National Health Program was established in 1959 by Michael Garter during the Brazorian People's Republic as part of a series of political reforms. Garter created the NHP as a means of establishing what he called for a "true universal healthcare system" to replace the Confederation Health Agency, an agency he saw as ineffective. The system was established as part of a series of reconstruction efforts and reforms made after the Great War and as part of his plan to partially liberalize the nation's political and economic systems in the post-war period. The NHP was designed to handle various medical services such as eye care, dental care, prescription costs and other aspects of long term care.
The NHP has persisted and remained an active government service even after the fall of the Brazorian People's Republic in the Yellowrose Revolution of 1989 and the subsequent delandonization programs done after both the Yellowrose and Pecan revolutions. It remains one of the few systems left over from the Brazorian Confederation and remains a large component of the nation's healthcare system. In the modern era, the NHP has been credited with ensuring a steady and high lift expectancy and with saving numerous lives, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to its origins in the Crimson era, many politicians and organizations in Brazoria, mainly politically conservative and libertarian, have called for it to be privatized over abolishing it. Since 2019, private alternatives have been proposed and established through the Healthcare Opportunity Act, the latter of which is deeply controversial.
History
Following the creation of the Brazorian People's Republic in 1937 during the late stage of the Great War, the federal government was reorganized with all provinces being reorganized into council republics which funded a system of universal healthcare with public funds. While such systems existed, there was no national-level universal healthcare program until 1941 when the Confederation Health Agency was established and was tasked with ensuring the public funding of all healthcare facilities, but it was not the same as a national-level single-payer system like ones seen in the United Kingdom with the National Health Service (NHS). In 1958, Michael Gartner would become the next general-secretary of the United Landonist Party of Brazoria which made him the paramount leader of Brazoria and he would announce in 1959 a series of new political reforms which included the creation of a national healthcare system. On July 2 of 1959, the National Health Program was established as a federal-level healthcare system under the newly created Department of Public Health and Welfare which established universal healthcare in the country for the first time. The NHP was the first of these reforms to be implemented as Garter believed it was essential to ensure that Brazoria was up to date in terms of healthcare and publicly denounced the lack of such a system as a sign of stagnation in the face of competition with the capitalist-oriented nations of Anglo-America like the Kingdom of Sierra and despite both Tournesol and the United Commonwealth already having such systems. As such, the NHP was the first to be created and healthcare was made the top priority of the Gartner Reforms.
The NHP would be credited with the rise in life expectancy in Brazoria throughout the 1960s and was credited with helping complete the post-war reconstruction efforts by the communist government in regards to the reconstruction and improvement of the country's healthcare system. Between 1959 and 1979, life expectancy had grown from 58 to 79 eventually rising yo 82 by the time of the Yellowrose Revolution in 1989. In accordance with the Baton Rouge Agreement signed between Brazoria and the United Commonwealth, the NHP was preserved, however many historians have since claimed that public popularity of the program and its effectiveness were also the main reasons for keeping the system even after the dismantling and abolition of communist era systems, institutions, and laws.
Organization
Core principles
Current structure
Staffing
Funding
Free services
Eligibility
Medical services
Prescription charges
Eye care
Dental care
Mental health
Abortion services
The NHP often covers abortion services and is one of the two main organizations that provides abortions alongside Planned Parenthood of Brazoria. Said operations are conducted in health clinics owned by the NHP and because they are paid for via tax payer dollars, the abortion is paid at the point of service. Due to abortion being legal nationwide in Brazoria, an NHP health clinics are eligible to provide it, however certain regulations and requirements in regards to getting an abortion vary by province and their respective abortion laws which regulate its accessibility among others. The NHP's abortion services are deeply controversial both due to the the ongoing controversy surrounding abortion in Brazoria and the fact that said services are paid for with public dollars, leaning several organizations, politicians, and individuals to call for the NHP to formally end its coverage of abortion entirely.
NHP policies and programs
Under the Gutierrez government
Under the Delaney government
Under the Gonzales government
Federal legislation
National Health Act
Public Health and Welfare Act
Healthcare Opportunity Act
Proposed reforms and changes
Proposed privatization
See also
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