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By T.R. Reid
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.25.2009
Arizona Daily Star
As Americans search for the cure to what ails our health-care system, we've overlooked an invaluable source of ideas and solutions: the rest of the world.
All the other industrialized democracies have faced problems like ours, yet they've found ways to cover everybody — and still spend far less than we do.
I've traveled the world from Oslo to Osaka to see how other developed democracies provide health care. Instead of dismissing these models as "socialist," we could adapt their solutions to fix our problems. To do that, we first have to dispel a few myths about health care abroad:
1. It's all socialized medicine out there.
Not so. Some countries, such as Britain, New Zealand and Cuba, do provide health care in government hospitals, with the government paying the bills. Others — for instance, Canada and Taiwan — rely on private-sector providers, paid for by government-run insurance. But many wealthy countries — including Germany, the Netherlands, Japan and Switzerland — provide universal coverage using private doctors, private hospitals and private insurance plans.
In some ways, health care is less "socialized" overseas than in the United States. Almost all Americans sign up for government insurance (Medicare) at age 65. In Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, seniors stick with private insurance plans for life. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is one of the planet's purest examples of government-run health care.
2. Overseas, care is rationed through limited choices or long lines.
Generally, no. Germans can sign up for any of the nation's 200 private health insurance plans — a broader choice than any American has. If a German doesn't like her insurance company, she can switch to another, with no increase in premium. The Swiss, too, can choose any insurance plan in the country.
In France and Japan, you don't get a choice of insurance provider; you have to use the one designated for your company or your industry. But patients can go to any doctor, any hospital, any traditional healer. There are no U.S.-style limits such as "in-network" lists of doctors or "pre-authorization" for surgery. You pick any doctor, you get treatment — and insurance has to pay. Canadians have their choice of providers.Click here to read about 3 other misconceptions about the broken American health care system and find out the reasons health care system in the U.S. is so inefficient and needs reform.
As for those notorious waiting lists, some countries are indeed plagued by them. Canada makes patients wait weeks or months for nonemergency care, as a way to keep costs down. But studies by the Commonwealth Fund and others report that many nations — Germany, Britain, Austria — outperform the United States on measures such as waiting times for appointments and for elective surgeries.
Editorial Comment by 26Dems: T.R. Reid was a Frontline correspondent for the PBS documentary "Sick Around the World" Reid examined healthcare systems in other developed countries, concluding that in nations where there is some private-sector role in health financing, one of the central lessons is that they “all impose limits”—including that insurance companies “can’t make a profit on basic care.” The show discussed single-payer alternatives, including Taiwan’s healthcare system.
Reid was contracted to do the companion documentary "Sick Around America" but he walked away because the final program omitted his conclusion that basic insurance cannot be profit-based. Frontline/PBS censored that conclusion by interviewing Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of American's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the leading health insurance industry lobbyist and failing to challenge her biased views.
For a review of T.R. Reid's new book The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care (Hardcover) Amazon Bestseller. click here.
