IELTS Writing Task 2/ IELTS Essay:

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:
Every government has a duty to provide free
health care for its people. What are the advantages
and disadvantages of government providing free
healthcare?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples
from your own knowledge or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.

Advantages of government providing free

healthcare?
1. Free medical service supported by the state ensures quality
treatment for all as it is free of cost. An affluent individual has a
wider range of healthcare options than a lower income person. The
government is meant to include all for the services it offers, not only
a segment of the population.

2. Treatment these days are quite expensive and not everyone can
afford it. The public funding for medical service ensures that poor
and lower-middle class people get the facility.

3. A government has some big responsibilities to fulfil and ensuring

free healthcare service for all is one of them. If a state makes
education and treatment expensive and out of reach for ordinary
population, a state is better without such authority! Two key areas
governments focus their attention on is public health care and
education. If these services are not accessible by all, there is no
meaning of having a government in a country.

4. Many people do not meet doctors and check their health condition
as private medical facilities cost them a huge amount of money. The
state-funded free medical support would encourage them to frequent
those facilities and control any diseases from the initial stage.

5. The public healthcare services are mostly run by the funds

collected from the public tax money and what better use it can have
than using it to treat the ill and those in need?

6. Private hospitals and medical facilities spend very little on

research and the responsibility of a government to use the public
funds for research to invent cures for deadly diseases cannot be
overlooked.

7. The reduction and control of disease outbreaks can only be

possible by providing free healthcare service for all and bringing
everyone under the umbrella of the quality treatment.

8. Sometimes prevention is better than cure and the government can

educate the mass population about the necessity of leading a healthy
life only if it reaches to the mass people through free healthcare
services.

Disadvantages of government providing free

health care?
1. Free health care service includes only some basic treatment and
for advanced diagnosis, people have to turn to the more expensive
private medical treatment. Free healthcare usually covers only the
most common treatment and the lack of doctors and trained nurses
make it worse.

2. Supporting free treatment for all requires a huge budget and it is

often difficult for governments in poor and developing countries to
manage it.

3. In a free health care centre, patients often have to wait for a long
for the treatment and prescribed surgery. Moreover, when a patient
is given a date, it will be one that satisfies the hospital, not the
patient.

4. The free health care centres do not have the latest medical
equipment and they use old technologies to treat and diagnosis a
patient. This is not the best way to serve a patient. A single doctor
has to meet and take care of a large number of patients and this is
detrimental for patients with the severe condition.