Healthcare Elsewhere (and here)

I’ve been busy reading the information on the Internet about healthcare systems and I’ve come to a conclusion. None of the healthcare systems are perfect. What’s great for us is that we have, for the most part, a private, voluntary system in which insurance is provided primarily through employers. That type of system is a great framework from which to build a universal system. Fortunately we weren’t the first to have a universal system. We lag way behind countries such as Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, The Netherlands, and Japan. The fact that we lag way behind is a plus. We can learn from the mistakes of those who went before us. We even have many states that have instituted a universal system. What a gold mine.

I found a document titled International Healthcare Systems Primer prepared by Jessica A. Hohman at Miami University (Ohio) for the American Medical Student Association. The document put a lot of the information I had been reading in one place. You can read the document at http://www.amsa.org/uhc/IHSprimer.pdf . You can read more about universal healthcare at http://www.amsa.org/uhc/.

Reading the document I discovered that the major problem with universal healthcare plans in countries I mentioned is that the average person who needs to see a doctor finds themselves on a waiting list. The average Canadian has to wait weeks to see a doctor even for serious problems. I needed bypass surgery in 2000. I went to the hospital in the early evening with a heart attack. They stabilized me and did the surgery the next day. I’ve spoke with Canadians who had to wait several days before they had surgery. They were stabilized and waited in line.

I was surprised to find that Germany and France had the best systems. They still have problems. One which they all share is the rising costs because of our aging populations. That baby boomer bubble affects us all. Now there's a problem that will resolve itself. Some good news.

When we hear about these problems we recoil in fear at the suggestion of universal health insurance. Okay, lets all agree that any system designed by man will have problems. The space program has had serious failures but we got to the moon. What I’m saying is that we weren't a nation of people who stuck our heads in the sand with every problem. We solved the problem and moved on. We have a great healthcare system. It’s just that many people can’t afford it or they have to select an insurance plan that leaves them underinsured. It’s kind of like leasing a car that you can only drive 5,000 miles a year. Drive it more and you’re going to pay big time.

There is another reason that many people recoil and it has nothing to do with the inefficiencies of other systems. It’s the belief that we should remain a country in which government involvement in our lives is held at a minimum. Many people vehemently believe that and I agree but I have reservations about services such as healthcare. I wish I was articulate enough to describe what I believe but I’m not. I’ve been thinking about this issue being a moral issue and that we shouldn’t treat health insurance like merchandise and then I find it’s a point already made. The following excerpt from an article titled The Case for Universal Health Care on the American Medical Student Association web site says it all.

“At its root, the lack of health care for all in America is fundamentally a moral issue. The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not have some form of universal health care (defined as a basic guarantee of health care to all of its citizens). While other countries have declared health care to be a basic right, the United States treats health care as a privilege, only available to those who can afford it. In this sense, health care in America is treated as an economic good like a TV or VCR, not as a social or public good.”

Getting back to the document, International Healthcare Systems Primer, the following are some excerpts from the section about the healthcare system in the US.

“The US is plagued by high administrative costs, and studies have estimated as much as 31% of all healthcare costs in the US go to administration (Woolhandler, et al. 2004). Health insurance premiums continued to grow at unsustainable rates; from 2003 to 2004, premiums increased 11.2%, a much faster rate than inflation (2.3%) and wage increases (2.2%).”

“The increasing number of uninsured individuals and skyrocketing health insurance premiums continue to be the most visible problems within the US healthcare system.”

“The central challenge facing the US healthcare system is extending this excellent healthcare to all of its citizens, not just those who can afford it.”

“The US is a leader in groundbreaking biomedical technology and innovative life-extending procedures, and those Americans who are well-insured enjoy arguably some of the best healthcare in the world. Despite this, the US entered the new millennium with a healthcare system characterized by skyrocketing costs, administrative inefficiency, and significant health disparities by race and income. Perhaps most visibly from an international standpoint, the US remains the only industrialized country in the world without guaranteed healthcare for its citizens.”

Addressing this is so much easier than getting to the moon, you know, Whatever it Takes.

Now I think it’s time to put this to bed until I'm ready to hit the road. I need to do more than just write. I need to start planning for that walk/pedal. I’ll talk about the plans here and I’ll get back to some posts about the book; maybe even some excerpts of my own.