Health Care Blog Post

HEALTH CARE COMPARISONS

United Kingdom-

• No co-payments (occasional on dental, eyeglass, and prescriptions)
• Socialized medicine- government both provides and pays for health care
• System is funded through taxes
• Works well because the General Practitioners have to see patients before they go to a specialist which increases the success of preventative care
• One downside is limited choice, but the government is instituting reforms to help make care more competitive and give patients more choice

Japan- 

• Co-payments are 30 percent of the cost of the procedure, amount paid each month is capped according to income levels
• Social insurance- all citizens are required to have health insurance, through work or purchased from a community-based plan
• Public assistance for those who can't afford it
• Citizens can go to any specialist they'd like
• Japan spends so little on health care that most hospitals and doctor's offices are operating in the red

Germany-

• Co-payment is 10 euros every 3 months (pregnant women exempt)
• Social insurance- citizens buy their insurance from one of more than 200 private, nonprofit "sickness funds"
• Public assistance for those who cannot afford it
• Single-payment system, but the sickness funds bargain with doctors as a group rather than negotiating prices with the government
• Downside is that doctors feel underpaid
• Another downside is that Germany exempts the richest 10 percent of the population and lets them use US-style for-profit insurance, which gives them an advantage to see doctors

Taiwan- 

• Co-payment is 20 percent of the cost of drugs and exemptions for major diseases, childbirth, preventative services, and for the poor, veterans, and children
• National Health Insurance- all citizens must have insurance, but there is only one, government-run insurer
• The new health system extended insurance to the 40 percent of the population that lacked it while actually decreasing the growth of health care spending
• New technology, like smart cards, which holds each person's medical history and bill the national insurer, make Taiwan's health care the lowest administrative costs in the world

Switzerland- 

• Co-payment is 10 percent of the cost of the service, up to $420 a year
• Social insurance- all citizens are required to have coverage, and those not covered are assigned to a company
• Government provides coverage for those who cannot afford the premiums
• Insurance companies are not allowed to make a profit on basic care and are prohibited from cherry-picking young and healthy citizens
• Drug prices are set by the government
• Second most expensive in the world, but far cheaper than the United States

COST OF HEALTH CARE

United Kingdom- 8.3 percent

Japan- 8 percent

Germany- 10.7 percent

Switzerland- 11.6 percent

United States- 15.3 percent

Though the United States tops all the other countries with Gross Domestic Product on health insurance, we are the lowest life expectancy (at 77 years) and the highest infant mortality rate (at 6.8 deaths for every 1000 births) It makes me wonder what we are spending our money on when half the country still does not have health insurance. I would like tho enact Switzerland's health insurance, or something like it, into the US government because even though it is not cheap, there is universal coverage and insurance companies are not allowed to make a profit on basic care which is a large problem in the US today.