Healthcare USA — Nothing is Foreign

T.R. Reid’s article “Five Myths About Health Care in the Rest of the World” appeared in Sunday’s Washington Post. He makes many interesting points, including this one:

In many ways, foreign health-care models are not really “foreign” to America, because our crazy-quilt health-care system uses elements of all of them. For Native Americans or veterans, we’re Britain: The government provides health care, funding it through general taxes, and patients get no bills. For people who get insurance through their jobs, we’re Germany: Premiums are split between workers and employers, and private insurance plans pay private doctors and hospitals. For people over 65, we’re Canada: Everyone pays premiums for an insurance plan run by the government, and the public plan pays private doctors and hospitals according to a set fee schedule. And for the tens of millions without insurance coverage, we’re Burundi or Burma: In the world’s poor nations, sick people pay out of pocket for medical care; those who can’t pay stay sick or die.

The fragmentation of U.S. healthcare creates a “costly bureaucratic mess,” writes Mr. Reid, costly in funds and lives. U.S. healthcare leads the developed world in cost and one uniquely American medical area: medical paupers – 700,000 families bankrupted by medical bills, and counting.

 

Note: T.R. Reid’s book The Healing of America was published today.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Tags: health care, health care reform, Healthcare, T.R. Reid