Countries with Better Single-Payer Healthcare than the United States
Single- payer health care is a system where the government is sorely responsible for all medical care costs without the help of private insurers. This is done in rich countries where the government collects and compiles all the medical fees and then discharge payments to the medical care providers through a single government source. The concept behind this is that all citizens have a right to receive quality medical care no matter who they are and to recover all money that would be wasted by insurers in administration and marketing. There are two ways to implement this kind of a system; first the government can own all hospitals and doctors in the country like in the United Kingdom or they can allow private hospitals where they will be contracting services. Here are some pros and cons of countries with single-payer healthcare.
Benefits that Countries with Single-Payer Healthcare
- Mortality rate is low because all citizens get medical help in time whether they can afford it or not.
- Savings. People go to get checked and treated in time before their illness become too expensive to treat. There is also no competition and hence no marketing or advertisements from the government and also not much administration work from healthcare providers. The fourth way this system saves money is through bulk purchasing power of all equipment and medications by one entity.
- Health care is cheap because hospitals are non-profit organizations.
- There is equality because rich people can’t buy priority since they don’t have their big insurance covers. All doctors will also be paid the same way depending on their level. There are no doctors of the same level paid differently.
- Physicians are compensated for changing people’s lives like if a doctor is responsible for a smoker or an alcoholic quitting.
- Freedom to choose a health care provider. Insurance companies only cover some hospitals but in this plan all registered doctors are covered.Problems Countries with Single- Payer Healthcare go through
- There is too much power given to the government regarding the public’s health so there may lack democracy.
- Taxation is high and it’s painful catering for other people’s unhealthy choices.
- Rationing. Some conditions or illnesses are not deemed fit to be covered due to bureaucracy and budgeting.
- Less medical research coming from under compensated doctors who have no motivation or the resources to conduct more research .there will also be fewer people wanting to be doctors.
List of Countries with Single-Payer Healthcare
There are like 20 countries that practice this system like Norway, Japan, Sweden ,Kuwait, UK, Canada, Slovenia, Italy, Finland, Spain, Iceland and Portugal but we will only look at Canada, UK and Taiwan for content.
United Kingdom’s National Health Service is what they call their public insurance in the UK. It’s devolved in every country but the government pays for medical expenses of its citizens.
Taiwan’s National Health Insurance is Taiwan’s public insurance administered by department of health. Most health care providers are private so they give the public physicians a run for their money and service which guarantees high quality healthcare.
Canada’s Medicare is one of the best systems because it gives the citizens freedom and privacy with their healthcare provider who are mostly private doctors paid by the government.
Kenji Berglund
ObamaCare isn’t perfect. It may even totally suck for some people. I have yet to figure out if it’s even cheaper then what I’m paying right now for my private insurance (which is $184 a month). The website (healthcare.gov) is so damn awful, I don’t even understand if the figures they are quoting me are for 1 person or for 3 people. But I think ObamaCare is a step in the right direction and in the end, it may lead to single payer. Our country can benefit a lot by following Taiwan’s model for healthcare. I hope we do it soon.
lino
I have Chinese friend that taught me that if you want to perfect something you start it. If we waited for the perfect car, we would not have cars on the road. So go ahead with obamacare and perfect it along the way. After all lwa markers are meant to be looking through these things and corrrecting them until the final refined prodcut for mass use is achieved.
Political Girl
Yet the wealthy and elite in foreign countries come to the USA when they need serious medical treatment like heart surgery or cancer care. Canada is known for its long waiting lines. You hear all the time about filthy conditions or denial of care in the UK. This article is a joke