Sick around the world
This video talked about how The United States, even though is the richest country in the world, its health care is ranked 37 in the world. That means that our healthcare system is extremely poor. One of the reasons is that many people get bankrupted, go broke paying healthcare bills. This is unheard of in many countries and would be considered a scandal. Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S gets financially bankrupt due to medical bills every year, and even more shamefully there are millions that have no healthcare coverage. This is why our president has drawn up a bill called the Affordable Healthcare Act in which over 25 million Americans who don’t have healthcare coverage will get it. There were a few countries that were highlighted and all of their citizens have health coverage.
Great Britain has NHS and the hospitals all government owned. Their taxes are slightly higher and it pays for healthcare for all. In the U.S doctors compete for money whereas in Great Britain, the doctors compete in giving great service because there are bonuses given to them when they keep their patients healthy. With the Affordable Healthcare Act taxes will be lowered for businesses who offer their employees affordable healthcare Insurance. There will also be a rise in taxes to the pharmaceutical companies to help pick up the tab on the very expensive drug costs.
In Japan which is the 2nd richest country in the world, all of their citizens have healthcare coverage as well. Their citizens pay little to nothing for health coverage. The government fixes prices so that there are no profits made. Medical care is no a market, a big business as it is in the U.S, it is a service that they deem necessary to provide for all their citizens. With the Affordable Act, there will be many different insurance companies competing against one another for clients, so that should help get costs lowered for healthcare coverage.
In Germany, the 3rd richest country also provide healthcare for all their citizens. The Rich pays for the poor and the health pays for the sick. There is also a no profit made the healthcare. Prices are negotiated by the state and physicians cannot raise the prices. Medical school is free in the country. A major difference between these two countries is that medical practice insurance is 10% what physicians pay here in the U.S. The Affordable Act does not allow the government to set universal prices, but it does competition to help keep prices lowered.
Switzerland was like the U.S. All of their citizens were not covered but then they tackled the issue head on. People that are working buy health insurance and the government pays for the poor. They also regulate drug company prices so that they are not making unbelievable profits. Even today, the pharmaceutical company makes at least a third of the profits they were make which was still substantial. In the Affordable Care Act, the government will pay for the poor, they have reformed the eligibility of Medicaid to include a wider more low income people who don’t make enough to afford to purchase their own healthcare insurance. They have also risen the age that children can remain covered under their parents’ healthcare coverage to the age of 26.
