First of all, America gets the gold star for somehow managing to spend the most money to the littlest effect. Universal Healthcare for all has long been a heated subject of debate. Obama's efforts on this front were the focus of his election, but have since been ignored under the current economic situation. It seems we focus too much on how the government needs to come up with MORE money to solve our problems, when other countries have proven that MORE money isn't necessarily what we need (not that we have the money anyways). Looking at how other nations handle healthcare, it seems like an obvious win-win for us to adopt and improve upon their strategies (much like Taiwan, only better!). It is obvious that no one has found the perfect solution yet, but there are obvious ways that we can at least improve. These improvements (such as competition among non-profit insurance companies and between hospitals) I feel would actually help our stressed economy, and promote the free-market society we depend on. I found it particularly surprising that in Germany, health insurance even covers such things as massage.
I like to see such a straightforward comparison of multiple health systems. One issue that seemed consistent among the other countries shown is that the hospitals and doctors are not getting paid enough for their services and equipment. I think that such extreme price limits would limit the amount of a service they can offer (i.e., only have a certain number of dialysis machines). That’s a significant flaw. What I didn’t see discussed is the difference in the constitutions of each country. I am not a history person and am not going to sit down and read through anyone’s founding principles, but I know this country was founded with the ideas of individual liberty and minimal government involvement. Do people need health care? Sure. Should the government be responsible for providing it? No. There are public clinics and hospitals that allow people who do not have insurance or a decent income to obtain health care. That system perhaps could be expanded upon if it’s not present in all areas. Reforming the system to make it easier to obtain health insurance and instituting a guaranteed renewability clause would be good to have, like the AMA’s proposal. I do not want to see the government getting more involved than they have to, however. I would even like to see the end of Medicare. Make incentives for people to buy insurance, put regulations on the insurance companies to limit profit, but do not mandate the people to purchase anything.
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.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.n 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. I think slowly the general public will eventually agree with the President. Just my thought.
This video opened my eyes to the many ways in which a country can care for its citizens. It was fascinating to learn about and compare the health care systems of the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and Switzerland to the United States. The Swiss system being the second most expensive in the world surprised me, but it being far cheaper than U.S. health care wasn’t too shocking. The U.S. health care system definitely needs a lot of work, but of the health care systems shown, none were perfect.
One of the most interesting things about this video was thinking about how prisoners are treated. Although I think they have the right to be medically treated, I think that many people in the "real world" don't get the help they need. For an English class, we did movie reviews on this video. What I found was a lot of people don't like the director because he is so blunt. I, on the other hand, enjoyed the video because I think he shows a side of many issues that people don't want to see. They want to believe that specific issues are simple; this is unrealistic becauase they are very complex and they need a lot of attention. He is also said to be one-sided; this may be the case, but he at least shows the side that no one gets to see. For example, he showed how living in other countries with universal heatlhcare can be enjoyable. Many people have this idea that universal healthcare means being unhappy, but that is not true.
First of all, America gets the gold star for somehow managing to spend the most money to the littlest effect. Universal Healthcare for all has long been a heated subject of debate. Obama's efforts on this front were the focus of his election, but have since been ignored under the current economic situation. It seems we focus too much on how the government needs to come up with MORE money to solve our problems, when other countries have proven that MORE money isn't necessarily what we need (not that we have the money anyways). Looking at how other nations handle healthcare, it seems like an obvious win-win for us to adopt and improve upon their strategies (much like Taiwan, only better!). It is obvious that no one has found the perfect solution yet, but there are obvious ways that we can at least improve. These improvements (such as competition among non-profit insurance companies and between hospitals) I feel would actually help our stressed economy, and promote the free-market society we depend on. I found it particularly surprising that in Germany, health insurance even covers such things as massage.
ReplyDeleteI like to see such a straightforward comparison of multiple health systems. One issue that seemed consistent among the other countries shown is that the hospitals and doctors are not getting paid enough for their services and equipment. I think that such extreme price limits would limit the amount of a service they can offer (i.e., only have a certain number of dialysis machines). That’s a significant flaw. What I didn’t see discussed is the difference in the constitutions of each country. I am not a history person and am not going to sit down and read through anyone’s founding principles, but I know this country was founded with the ideas of individual liberty and minimal government involvement. Do people need health care? Sure. Should the government be responsible for providing it? No. There are public clinics and hospitals that allow people who do not have insurance or a decent income to obtain health care. That system perhaps could be expanded upon if it’s not present in all areas. Reforming the system to make it easier to obtain health insurance and instituting a guaranteed renewability clause would be good to have, like the AMA’s proposal. I do not want to see the government getting more involved than they have to, however. I would even like to see the end of Medicare. Make incentives for people to buy insurance, put regulations on the insurance companies to limit profit, but do not mandate the people to purchase anything.
ReplyDeleteAs 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.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.n 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. I think slowly the general public will eventually agree with the President. Just my thought.
ReplyDeleteThis video opened my eyes to the many ways in which a country can care for its citizens. It was fascinating to learn about and compare the health care systems of the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and Switzerland to the United States. The Swiss system being the second most expensive in the world surprised me, but it being far cheaper than U.S. health care wasn’t too shocking. The U.S. health care system definitely needs a lot of work, but of the health care systems shown, none were perfect.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most interesting things about this video was thinking about how prisoners are treated. Although I think they have the right to be medically treated, I think that many people in the "real world" don't get the help they need. For an English class, we did movie reviews on this video. What I found was a lot of people don't like the director because he is so blunt. I, on the other hand, enjoyed the video because I think he shows a side of many issues that people don't want to see. They want to believe that specific issues are simple; this is unrealistic becauase they are very complex and they need a lot of attention. He is also said to be one-sided; this may be the case, but he at least shows the side that no one gets to see. For example, he showed how living in other countries with universal heatlhcare can be enjoyable. Many people have this idea that universal healthcare means being unhappy, but that is not true.
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