Views of the Health Care System
According to the text, U.S. health care spending was $2.1 trillion in 2006, a huge amount of money to be spending in health care every year in the United States. The video “Sick around the World” shows how the health care system works in different countries. In order to compare the health care system in the United States, I would like to use Japan’s health care system as an example. It manages to provide some form of universal health coverage to its populations.
American health care system is with high costs, multiple gatekeepers and fails to provide insurance for much of the population. Japan’s health care system, Patients are free to select physicians or facilities of their choice and cannot be denied coverage. The clinics and hospitals in Japan may not be as spacious and well buffed as those in American suburbs. But the actual consumers of care show rates of satisfaction that should make American providers blush.
Doctors, hospitals, and insurers are for the most part private in Japan. The services are provided either through regional to national public hospitals, or through private hospitals to clinics, and patients have universal access to any facility. There is no combat between insurers and insured. And it’s with no fear on the part of doctors and hospitals that they won’t be paid. The patient is accepting responsibility for 30% of these costs while the government pays the remaining 70%. This system has dramatically lower administrative costs than in America.
A good health care system should contain no waiting time period, the “right” to choose ones doctor, low cost medical insurance and clear on pay-projects. I think the United States health care system should have these three common practices. First, ensure the insurance company profits are limited or eliminated. Second, everybody is mandated to buy healthcare. Last, the government must provide subsidies to the poor. Providers must accept fixed prices.