Healthcare around the world

[Merlin]

Healthcare is an important issue everywhere around the world. This BBC article is an eye opener for me. There is so much difference among the four countries shown. Click into the link to read more.

Healthcare around the world

14 Aug [BBC]



United States - Private system

Private sector funded, with more than half from private sources. Private health insurance available through employer, government or private schemes.

Millions of people in the US are not covered by health insurance
15.3% of population (43.7 million people) do not have health insurance. ...

United Kingdom - Universal, tax-funded system

Public sector funded by taxation and some national insurance contributions.

About 11% have private health insurance. Private GP services very small. ....

France - Social insurance system

All legal residents covered by public health insurance funded by compulsory social health insurance contributions from employers and employees with no option to opt out.

Most have people have extra private insurance to cover areas that are not eligible for reimbursement by the public health insurance system and many make out of pocket payments to see a doctor. ....

Singapore - Dual system

Dual system funded by private and public sectors. Public sector provides 80% of hospital care 20% primary care.

Financed by combination of taxes, employee medical benefits, compulsory savings in the form of Medisave, insurance and out-of-pocket payments. ...

[dave lukins]

45.7% of Americans with no insurance. That's approx 3/4 of the whole of the UK. What is the system if you need hospitalisation or surgery..who pays?

[Merlin]

Dave, are you asking about Singapore? This is a very brief summary of our healthcare system, taken from the same BBC link.

Singapore - Dual system

Dual system funded by private and public sectors. Public sector provides 80% of hospital care 20% primary care.

Financed by combination of taxes, employee medical benefits, compulsory savings in the form of Medisave, insurance and out-of-pocket payments.

Patients expected to pay part of their medical expenses and to pay more for higher level of service. Government subsidises basic healthcare.

Public sector health services cater for lower income groups who cannot afford private sector charges. In private hospitals and outpatient clinics, patients pay the amount charged by the hospitals and doctors on a fee-for-service basis.

[dave lukins]

Dave, are you asking about Singapore? This is a very brief summary of our healthcare system, taken from the same BBC link.

Thanks for that Merlin. Do you like the system and if you was the Health Minister, how could you improve it?

[cirrrocco]

Great video by PBS frontline

FRONTLINE: sick around the world | PBS

[Merlin]

Thanks for that Merlin. Do you like the system and if you was the Health Minister, how could you improve it?

We in general are happy with our healthcare system. The public and the government share the cost. It is not one size fits all. Those who can afford to, or would like to pay more, can get higher levels of service. The cost is also transparent beforehand, as well as the cost comparison among different hospitals.

Apparently we have high WHO ranking of our healthcare system. This information is from our Health Ministry's homepage.

The state of health in Singapore is internationally regarded and consistently ranked by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to be among the world's best. In its last World Health Report on health systems, Singapore was ranked 6th out of 191 countries and top in Asia for our health system.

I wonder which countries are the top five. Very probably rich Scandinavian countries.

[dundonrl]

well.. what your forgetting, a hospital in the US can't turn away someone that needs critical care.. also we have public health clinics that if you can't afford medical care, you can go to..

[Shek]

45.7% of Americans with no insurance. That's approx 3/4 of the whole of the UK. What is the system if you need hospitalisation or surgery..who pays?

Dave,

That's 45.7 million, not %, or around 15%. Of that number, 1/3 are young adults who choose no coverage, another 1/3 have sporadic coverage, and 1/6 are illegal immigrants. By the time that's all taken into account, just over 10 million is the figure for those who actual have no insurance. If you have an emergency, the taxpayer will pick up the tab for the emergency treatment.

[Merlin]

.. Apparently we have high WHO ranking of our healthcare system. This information is from our Health Ministry's homepage.

I wonder which countries are the top five. Very probably rich Scandinavian countries.

I've now found the information about this WHO ranking of healthcare systems around the world. It was compiled in 2000, their latest as they've found it too complex to continue.

1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland ...

The World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems.

As mentioned, Singapore is 6th. The top five are not Scandinavian countries. Some like Singapore are small countries.

The top ranking is France, and second Italy.

[gunnut]

We should send our people without health insurance to France for treatment. The government will charter an ocean liner, making pilgrimages 4 times a year to France.

At the same time, we will deny treatment to people from all the nations with "better rankings" in health care as rated by WHO(?), who come over here seeking better treatment.

[Merlin]

Great video by PBS frontline

FRONTLINE: sick around the world | PBS

This PBS program compares the healthcare systems of 4 countries with that of the US. They are Japan, UK, Germany and Switzerland.

According to the WHO healthcare ranking, they don't rank too high, see below:

Japan 10, Germany 25, UK 18, Switzerland 20 (US 37).

PBS should knew of these WHO rankings when they made the program. For some reasons, they didn't compare with say these higher ranking European countries,

France 1, Italy 2, Spain 7, Austria 9.

The others high ranking ones are mainly small countries.

[antimony]

Healthcare is an important issue everywhere around the world. This BBC article is an eye opener for me. There is so much difference among the four countries shown. Click into the link to read more.

Healthcare around the world

The one thing that really struck me was that the UK has a very high out of pocket spending, in spite of having the NHS.

Or am I reading the data wrong?

[axeman]

At the same time, we will deny treatment to people from all the nations with "better rankings" in health care as rated by WHO(?), who come over here seeking better treatment.

If I'm not mistaken, most of those people PAY for the treatment.

[gunnut]

If I'm not mistaken, most of those people PAY for the treatment.

Paying is not the problem. WHO suggested that the US health care sucks. We should make a point by barring those countries with "better" health care from seeking treatment in our "inferior" system. After all, we don't want to subject those people to our broken system and make them suffer more.