Posted by Sam

So I watched the frontline piece on international health care systems and found it quite thought provoking as well as revealing about what I interpret to be the American psyche.

First of all I noticed that there were some common themes among the different health care systems being analyzed. One, health care was not seen as a for profit enterprise in any of the countries. Two, no body was denied health care in any of the systems be they private or government funded. Three, doctors were not paid particularly well. Four, it was unanimous that nobody went broke or was put in undue financial burden because of medical bills. And five, both the GDP spent on healthcare and the administrative cost seemed to be around 8%.

While these are all lessons that we as Americans should take when looking to reform our health care system, I learned both by listening to the frontline correspondent and by thinking about it myself that many of these changes would not be accepted by the American People. In order to incorporate any of the ideas presented in the frontline piece the government would have to step in and play a more active role in healthcare. Whether it be providing the healthcare (UK) or mandating that people register for health care (Japan) or fixing the prices of medical procedures (Japan, Taiwan, Germany), the government needs to step in and the American people are not ready for that kind of oversight. To make these systems possible in the United States would also need to involve a paradigm shift in which the American business world can view healthcare as a necessary not for profit entity which needs to exist. Because we have a for-profit system, the bigger companies deny those who they deem as not profitable and this is where we get the 15.3% of un-insured Americans. The government does not yet see it as their responsibility to provide health care to everyone. In my opinion this could be done if we cut the overhead going to administration which is a staggering 22%! Taiwan has instituted smart cards which have all the relevant information on them and has cut the administrative fees dramatically.

To answer the question more directly, the U.S has allowed the un-insured rate to climb so high because we as a society are market based capitalists and the health care providers as well as the medical personnel like to be making money even if it is at the expense of the un insured. In fact we are making so much profit here that the Swiss drug companies make a third of their profit from American health care! Until we have a major paradigm shift in this country we will continue to allow the current un-insured rate.