International Health Care Policies Example For Students

International Health Care Policies Of the countries that were made available, the three countries health care policies I found most interesting were United Kingdom, Japan and Taiwan. These three countries all had a very different take on how to provide healthcare to the public but they also all managed to do so with a low government GDP. The United Kingdom is a capitalist democracy with a health care system that tries to support it’s views of an economic, political and social economy. There system is referred to as the National Health Service (NHS), it is government funded and the main source of income is through taxation. The Brits call this process â€Å"socialized medicine,† where the government is in charge of providing and funding for their health care program. Once the high taxes are collected the government then goes and distributes them throughout the (NHS) to health care providers. Doctors have set salaries determined by the government, but before you can get to your doctor you have to see a General Practitioner (GP) or also known as the gatekeeper. These people run their own private practices and their pay is based upon how many patients they have and the health of their patients. This system may sound all tied together but some of the negatives that go along with the (NHS) are long waiting li sts, and a limited choice on your health care provider. Some of the changes that the UK has managed to change over the years is how â€Å"Hospitals now compete for NHS funds distributed by local Primary Care Trusts, and starting in April 2008 patients are able to choose where they want to be treated for many procedures.† This has allowed for the market based economy to open up more, leaving patients with a wider choice for health services. Japan’s health care system differs from the UK in several ways, there GDP averages about 8% which is even less than the UK. Everyone in Japan has to sign up for Health Care Insurance or as they call it (Social Insurance). A families average premium totals out to be about $280 a month, and if you can’t pay a premium then you have a net to fall on, there is public assistance available. Japan pays all but about 30% of the cost, leaving co-payments minimal, but they base the total amount off of your income at the end of the month. Japan isn’t completely government based they found that having most health insurance agencies, doctors and nearly all hospitals in private sectors allowed competition leaving the GDP at a low 8%. The Japanese are known for being some of the longest lived humans due to their cultures diet and lifestyle, but many argue it has much to do with the stability of their health care plan. It was created with the intent to provide health care to all individuals in their society, singling no one out because of inability to pay for the system. The Japanese have also made it easier to get service to their citizens, they eliminated the idea of gate keepers, allowing the Japanese to go to any specialist as often as they wish. The Ministry of Health determines the price of every procedure every two years. This is the main factor in keeping costs low, but keeping costs so low has been the soul cause of their hospital deficit. Their government is not spending enough on health care so hospitals are the ones suffering, not the citizens. Taiwans system is merely a combination of all the systems. They analyzed other countries and looked at their flaws and then tried to build a health care system around them. They have what is called a â€Å"National Health Insurance.† All of their citizens are required to obtain health insurance, but the difference between Taiwan and many other capitalist democracies is their system has made it where they only have one government- run insurer, which cuts competition and gets strait to the point. Families on average pay a premium of $650 per fiscal year. â€Å" Working people pay premiums split with their employers; others pay flat rates with government help; and some groups like the poor and veterans, are fully subsidized.† The Taiwanese system allows for citizens to see any doctor at anytime. Every citizen is allotted a card when receiving health insurance, it is called the ‘smart card.’ It contains medical history; how many visits the patient has had; and a bill history. It is a system that has much thought put into it, and a system that wouldnt exist without the technological advancements we have today. Taiwan is currently leading in having the lowest health care plan, their GDP is only 6.3%, but from that statistic you can easily tell that the government spends very little on the up keep of their medical system. Taiwan is so concerned about providing health care to all of their citizens that that tend to forget about the hospitals that are actually providing this care and the money they need to stay active. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND EXPANSION OF THE EUROPE EssayTaiwan’s health care system is unique in the way they analyzed other countries from around the world pointed out their flaws and tried to create a new health care plan in 1995, that avoided all of those problems, and they did a very good job, increasing health care availability to the 40% who did not have access to it prior to their reform. Taiwans system is one that I believe the U.S could learn a thing or two from. Here in the U.S we have private sectors for our Insurance agencies, each in competition with one another for business, always fluctuating cost and stats about being the most reliable agency to choose. In Taiwan they eliminated that whole controversy, they only allowed one government insurer, and everyone has access to it, because if you can’t pay the insurance premium then there is accommodations to fully subsidize your cost. In Taiwan they use a system called a ‘smart card,’ that has all the patients medical history, bill reports, visits to the doctor and so on. Every citizen is allotted a card and it is the only way they can receive service. In the U.S we don’t exactly have what they call a ‘smart card,’ but we do have our insurance cards, which play a similar role. Our Insurance cards contain our personal information that any health care provider can look up with the correct data base. I believe the Taiwanese saw our system of long paperwork a flaw in their new health care system and created what I would like to call the Ultimate insurance card, or what they call the Smart Card. The Taiwanese do have a great system they created and one that is seeming to work quite well for them, but when adjusting their health care system they did not seek to increase government spending. They simply just don’t have enough money in their government to pay for all of their services. This flaw in health care is one that may not have a solution, in government systems across the world, these countries are either spending too little or too much on health care, leaving a string loose in the system. For years now, the world has been trying to come up with the most ideal health care system, one that works for EVERYONE. But in some countries, the single flaw of having too low of a GDP to support their hospitals is one they just look past because finding a health care cost that works for everyone including the government is merely unrealistic in their eyes. But it’s the struggle that the U.S has not given up on yet. After analyzing these three health care systems in other capitalist democracies, it has helped broaden my views on the health care regime of the U.S. We currently have one of the most expensive health care plans in the world with Switzerland a far step behind us. But I believe the reason as to why we have not converted to plans similar to the U.K, Japan and Taiwan is because they all share one main flaw, each of their governments has a system that provides health care to all citizens at an extremely low cost leaving an extremely low GDP in comparison to the U.S, but each of these countries gives minimal support to their hospitals which when it comes down to it, they are our main resource in this whole process. Without Hospitals we have no services, I believe the U.S could learn a few things from each of these countries to help lower our cost to something more reasonable, but not completely convert our plan until we can tackle the flaw that no country has managed to do so yet. WORK CITED * FRONTLINE. â€Å"Five Capitalist Democracies.† www.pbs.org. 15 April. 2008. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/countries/ * â€Å"Sick around the World.† Frontline News. PBS. 15 April. 2008. Televison *Discussions from Class with Dr. Arwin