The Goal Should Be “Universal Health Coverage”
What I want to see most for the US is a functioning universal coverage system. I want it to be relatively safe from swings in political feelings of those in office. I want it to have broad public support. I want it to be efficient. I want it to reduce the possibility of fraud. I want it to function for my children, and their children.
As we’ve seen during the Trump era, the GOP voters and elected officials are perfectly happy with simply tearing down the works of previous Democratic administrations. We have seen them wage war against a fairly conservative health insurance mandate system. I think we have some idea what a battle to undo a single payer system would look like. But I’m not trying to overstate that to create fear. I’m just recognizing that one of the things that will make a healthcare system successful is its political longevity.
This isn’t about drilling down into the minute details of each world healthcare system. This is about opening the conversation to all of these other means of universal coverage. I suggest that it’s irresponsible to simply rely on the politically pleasing sounds of slogans and branded political movements.
I don’t think we’ve done a good enough job of discussing the many different ways to go about creating a means of achieving universal health care.
A Bunch of Unique and Individually Tailored Healthcare systems
Switzerland, Netherlands, and Japan all have personal mandate systems.
Canada has a regionally administered single payer system. The “Regionally Administered” part of this might cause some people to fear “block grants for Medicaid” type of funding for irresponsible state leaders.
Germany has a multipayer system. Personally, this is the most appealing to me. I’ve used the German system on two different occasions, and I was incredibly satisfied. Comparing the costs at the time to my US costs, there was no contest. I paid 20 bucks in Germany and 2000 in the US for the same doctor’s visit.
Finland has something that might be described as a “local municipal mandate”. The national government requires each municipality to provide a plan for covering everyone.
The UK’s NHS is actually called an “NHS” system. Medical professionals are employed by the government. It scores top marks.
Germany, NL, and France can be described as “Statutory Health Insurance” models (SHI, but also known as NHI for National Health Insurance).
More Details on Each System Can be Found Here
www.commonwealthfund.org/…
We need to define the goal as universal coverage, and then create the system that best addresses the needs of the US. Maybe that’s one single insurance fund for all Americans.
This table is in the very first part of the report.
The rest of the developed world has universal coverage. They pay less, and they get better results. They are able to be more efficient, because they enact legislation with the goal of being more efficient. For the most part, the main difference between US and European systems is the profit. Other countries have split private/public systems, as we do. Yet, they are still able to have a far less costly system.
It’s a mistake, imo, to make the goal about the type of system, instead of stating very clearly that we have a goal as a nation to be sure that every single person has access to care that is actually accessible.
In order to do this correctly, we must use evidence from the entire world’s healthcare systems.
The best thing for the US may be a single, national health insurance fund. On the other hand, it may be some other system. I don’t see a lot of push for an NHS style system like the UK, but it scores higher than other systems. Why is the national conversation not about nationalizing all healthcare to create a UK style NHS system if it scores better and has lower costs? It’s mostly because that’s viewed as an untenable political position to take in the US, even for the most liberal of Democrats.
Switzerland is number 2. It has a personal mandate system.
The complexities of the entire conversation don’t end with healthcare. It’s hard to ignore all of the areas of overlap with healthcare. We also have to recognize that health outcomes are impacted by more than just your ability to see a doctor and be treated. Healthcare outcomes are also connected to things like workplace protections, vacation, sick leave, family leave, and any of a number of areas in which the US spends far less than other developed nations.
A BIGGER LINK TO THE REPORT!
