The complexity of
the US health care system can overwhelm even an expert: both private and public
come into play to provide a wide range of health services to the whooping three
hundred million population of the country. The US is one of the richest
countries in the world, yet, our health care ranks 37th(!!) in terms
of quality and fairness. Undoubtedly, the system has its flaws, which became
recognized by the government. Health care reform is aimed at improving access
to health care and controlling its rising costs. It makes me wonder if the
government learned any lessons from other capitalist countries that recently
faced the same challenge.
After watching an
eye-opening movie by US correspondent T.Reid Sick Around the World, I came to realize that various developed
countries addressed the problems of health care access, quality, and cost in
various ways. We can learn our lessons from Taiwan, but would it be wise to
adapt the reform that was implemented in the country which economy at the time
much differed from the well-developed US economy? We can learn our lessons from
Japan, but would it be wise to compare US population to the population of the
country with the longest life expectancy that may be due to a much healthier
lifestyle and diet? We can also learn our lesson from Germany, but would it be
wise to compare our physicians’ cost of education and malpractice insurance to
their colleagues’ from “the other side of the pond”? I suppose, out of five
health care systems, an amateur spectator like me would consider the one of Switzerland.
First, a health care reform took place in the country where the system used to
be similar to ours, with voluntary coverage. Second, the reform was recent –
1990’s. Third, the country’s stable capitalistic economy can somewhat be
compared to the economy of the US.
T.Reid makes a very
important point when he says that everyone has the right to vote, everyone has
the right for a fair trial, so everyone should have a right to health care. If
Switzerland could do it with eight million people, so can we, with three
hundred and eleven. There are several reasons, why I think the model works. One
of the key features of the reform is to reduce health care costs, and
Switzerland has done so by reducing administrative costs, which a sky-high in
the US. Next, the insurance companies compete for clients despite being
non-profit organizations and offering the exact same benefit packet to the
public. In a healthy economy, competition should always be present to ensure
that there is a continuing effort for improvement. No one can be denied health
insurance due to a re-existing condition, yet there is still room for insurance
companies to make profit on the supplemental insurance. Another crucial
component of the Switzerland’s health care system is its affordability: even
though a seven hundred and fifty dollars monthly premium is a costly expense,
it is still much cheaper than what we pay in the US. On top of that, the government
controls prices on prescription medications – a concept unheard of in the US
where a poor elderly person can be spending over a half of their monthly income
on drugs…
To sum it up, I
would like to share a personal story. A young American couple had their first
born in one of the local hospitals. Soon it became clear that the infant was
seriously ill; it took the best physicians in the country almost two month to
diagnose the baby with a rare genetic disorder – APEX syndrome. The family
spent an entire year of the baby’s short life in the hospital. In the end, they
were left with a profound sense of loss and a monstrous bill that the new
family could afford, even with health insurance. Sadly, such stories happen in
our country. In Switzerland, this would have been a huge national scandal. So wherever we learn our lessons from, we are
definitely over-due for some change in the health care system.
