“Five Myths About Health Care Around the World”
Washington Post Article, 8/23/09
In anticipation of the soon-to-be posted interview with Dr. Rachel Adler, associate professor of anthropology and instructor for the Global Public Health course, I thought it would be interesting to share this article on five top myths about foreign health care systems and the oft-made claim that they are all socialist systems.
Some key points in the author’s argument:
1. Almost all Americans over the age of 65 sign up for Medicare (government insurance) whereas in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, seniors often remain with private plans for life.
2. Although those notorious waiting lists do exist (for non-emergency care and elective surgeries), studies by the Commonwealth Fund indicate many nations — Germany, Britain, Austria — outperform the United States for measures like appointment waits and elective surgeries.
3. Private sector, for-profit health insurance system is less cost-effective than other payment systems. The United States systems spends 20 cents of every dollar on non-medical related costs (paperwork and marketing, for instance).
Take Japan, the “world champion at controlling medical costs,” a nation in which the average citizen visits the doctors 15 times a year, triple the U.S. rate, quality of life is high, life expectancy is greater than in U.S. BUT where our nation spends more than $7,000 on each individual annually, Japan spends a mere $3,400.
4. The myth that America has the “finest health care” in the world.
Overseas, cost-control drives innovation, falsifying the belief that the U.S. dominates groundbreaking medical research as the result of its for-profit system. Let’s look at Japan, once again. The identical MRI neck region scan that costs $1,500 in the U.S. is $98 in Japan, and these labs are still making a profit.
5. Let’s make health insurance “nice”
Foreign health insurance companies MUST accept all applications and are prevented from canceling as long as you pay the premiums (though everyone is mandated to buy insurance).
We are the only nation that has yet to agree on one model for health-care delivery and finance, ours is a mixture of other nations blended in to a “costly, confusing bureaucratic mess.”
With our remarkable medical assets: top-notch education, advanced hospitals and world-class research, we should not have tens of millions without insurance coverage. Let’s take a cue from all the other industrialized nations and work our way up to the label of providing the finest health care.
