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egbertowillies

(4,058 posts)
Mon Jul 2, 2012, 04:25 PM Jul 2012

Fareed Zakaria Compares Our System To Other Countries’ – Obamacare Working In Switzerland

Last night I watched Fareed Zakaria’s fact based program on healthcare systems from around the world on CNN. He wrote the piece below in March that got little coverage but it bears reposting to get as many Americans reading it. So I urge you to spread this post. As Fareed says, “You can reason from principle but you also have to reason from facts and reality. We have 20 other countries in the world that do this. All of them are able to do it better and substantially cheaper than us. So to me it feels like the task is not to junk all this and say there is some utopia out there that’s never been tried in any actual human society rather to say look we have got a messy reality with the government and markets working together let’s fix it.”

It is no accident that the Right Wing specifically targets Europe for attack to instill fear that somehow the Affordable Care Act would make our healthcare system Europe like. Firstly, for the vast majority of Americans, if they knew the truth about access to healthcare in Canada or Europe in general, they would likely adopt it. Their outcomes are better. Their life expectancy is higher. There are no pre-existing condition restrictions. Everyone is covered (including foreigners in many instances). And no one gets bankrupted from being sick. As Fareed would attest, it is not a panacea. Every system has its problems; however they all work better for the vast majority of their citizens than ours.

Given that we spend so much more on healthcare with substandard results, Obamacare with much of the efficiencies rarely discussed will mitigate much. That said, going forward we must all work to improve the bill. Medicare for all is provably the most efficient option but for cultural reasons simply regulating our insurance companies may suffice in the short term. It still means we will be transferring our wealth to a few who have convinced Americans that private health insurance is efficient and moral. Do remember they simply pay a bill. For that we have been willing to give them 30% of our premiums that could otherwise provide better healthcare.

It is our job to continue engaging our family, friends, and neighbors to attain our ultimate goal, a humane healthcare system where all have access at an affordable price. GET BUSY MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

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Fareed Zakaria Compares Our System To Other Countries’ – Obamacare Working In Switzerland (Original Post) egbertowillies Jul 2012 OP
Yeah but Switzerland is undoubtedly under the control of a socialist dictatorship Proud Liberal Dem Jul 2012 #1
Please stop bringing facts to the discussion Cali_Democrat Jul 2012 #2
Sorry Proud Liberal Dem Jul 2012 #3
I thought the segment on Taiwan's single payer system was fascinating aint_no_life_nowhere Jul 2012 #4
I had heard about the systems ... 1StrongBlackMan Jul 2012 #5
South Korea is one of the 20 davidpdx Jul 2012 #6
But we have to remember that the Swiss version of "private" organizations providing health care CTyankee Jul 2012 #7

Proud Liberal Dem

(24,355 posts)
1. Yeah but Switzerland is undoubtedly under the control of a socialist dictatorship
Mon Jul 2, 2012, 04:41 PM
Jul 2012

Oh wait a minute, the Heritage Foundation rates them higher than the US in terms of economic freedom. How did they manage that AND have a similar health care plan like ACA?

aint_no_life_nowhere

(21,925 posts)
4. I thought the segment on Taiwan's single payer system was fascinating
Mon Jul 2, 2012, 05:18 PM
Jul 2012

Apparently they went from a broken "system" like we have where over 40% were uninsured to a single payer system where something like fewer than 8% are not covered and where the costs of running it have dramatically decreased. I'd like to see Taiwan's solution at least tried out in this country. If the experiment doesn't work after a decade, we can try something else.

 

1StrongBlackMan

(31,849 posts)
5. I had heard about the systems ...
Mon Jul 2, 2012, 05:27 PM
Jul 2012

used in Switzerland and Taiwan during the early ObamaCare battles, and I was struck by ObamaCare's similarity.

I wondered why the U.S. was having this fight and concluded that, even though ObamaCare relies on a system of private insurers, those insurers know there is fair more to be made by paying our legislators to keep the system just as it is.

davidpdx

(22,000 posts)
6. South Korea is one of the 20
Tue Jul 3, 2012, 08:35 AM
Jul 2012

And I happen to live there....

I caught the last 30 minutes of the program and it was very good.

South Korea's National Health Insurance (NHIC) program is essentially a single payer system where you pay a monthly premium and a small copay and you can go to whatever doctor you want. I've never been denied care. Last year I broke my ankle and everything was covered except for the copay.

Song, Y.J. (2009). The South Korea Health Care System.
The South Korean Health Care System. JMAJ, 52(3). 206-209.

http://www.coopami.org/en/countries/other_countries/south_korea/social_protection/pdf/south_korean_health_care_system.pdf

Where in the World Can You Get Universal Health Care

South Korea

South Korea passed a law in 1977, mandating health insurance for industrial workers. During its rapid economic growth, health care became a priority for the government, which created the National Health Insurance. The system extended to universal coverage by 1989.

The government merged more than 300 individual insurers into a single national fund, according to a WHO report.
Korea's single-payer program has "been successful in mobilizing resources for health care, rapidly extending population coverage, effectively pooling public and private resources to purchase health care for the entire population, and containing health care expenditure," according to a report published in Health Policy Plan.

But another report published in Health Affairs said that the public funding is limited, leaving "beneficiaries with relatively high payments." South Korea's expenditure on health care is 6.3% of the country's gross domestic product, compared with 18% in the United States.


http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/28/health/countries-health-care/index.html

And here's the comparison....

Right after I broke my ankle in Korea I went to the US and...wait for it...wait for it...

Got sick with pneumonia. I was in the hospital for 5 days. How much: over $30,000. No insurance.

The only thing that saved me is the fact that the hospital had a foundation that covered the cost. I was however scared shitless how much I was going to owe after being admitted.

I hope someone appreciated my neatly formatted APA reference

CTyankee

(63,771 posts)
7. But we have to remember that the Swiss version of "private" organizations providing health care
Tue Jul 3, 2012, 09:20 AM
Jul 2012

is, by law, NONPROFIT. We need to stress that since it is THE significant difference in what we have with the ACA, altho the ACA is a step in the right direction.

Then we have tired old "maxims" like "The U.S. has the best healthcare in the world," being mouthed by jerks like McConnell (just the other day). That has been disproven so many times it isn't even funny. Even Joe Scarborough has admitted as much on Morning Joe. He goes silent when a progressive tells him that it is our "for profit" health care system that is driving costs up. And no wonder...he's got nuthin' to say in response. It is true.

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