Every countries has its own health care system. Is one better than the other that we should adopt the best one in the world? Should we have the same health care system in each country so that everyone can be equal? People may have wondered why don’t we just copy exact the same thing like France, the best healthcare system according to Business Insider?
In Taiwan, where I live for almost my entire life, our health care system is National Health Insurance, which almost everyone is covered just paying taxes and minimal fees. However one major problem that we are facing is that it’s too cheap that people especially elders go to the hospitals so often even when they don’t have problems. Basically many people abuse the health care by getting medicines so often that they don’t need it. This situation causes the government to waste a lot of money. So how can we solve this situation? To increase the payment for health insurance? In fact, the Taiwanese government has tried to implement a health care reform that bases on income, in which the government can gain a bit more money to avoid bankrupt. However, some people believe that this might influence some lower income families not being able to pay the medical bills.
During this spring break, I went to Nicaragua and found out that they also have national health insurance. Citizens don’t pay anything for public medical services. Doesn’t it sound good? But there are a lot of underlying problems. For example, the quality. The quality isn’t as great. The hospitals lack medical resources but not patients. Everyday, the hospitals are full of people lining up. People have to wait for hours and hours to actually get to see the doctors. Even the doctors and nurses aren’t well paid. Then one might think, is this problem caused by the free medical services? Not exactly, the culture, society, geography, and the economy also play major roles in health care. In addition, because of poverty, the citizens have hard to transporting to the main cities to the hospitals. Therefore besides from quality, access is also another problem that the Nicaraguan government is facing.
In the article “Access to Health Care,” it gives us three interesting cases. In case A, is it fair that once a person lose his job, he loses his health insurance and not being to get access to health care? And for case C, the professor is not eligible to get Medicaid payment for nursing home care for Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is also a health problem, then why can’t it be included in Medicaid. It is indeed really hard to come up with the best health care, which everyone is under coverage. The government has to consider many factors not just the percent coverage of health care but also the affordability, quality, and accessibility. Since health is also a human right, everyone should have the right to be healthy and get access to good health services. But is it possible to come up with the perfect health care in which everyone is equal? Or when does health care system consider as socially acceptable to everyone?
Sources
B. Brody and T. Engelhard, “Access to Health Care,” Bioethics: Readings and Cases
There is no healthcare system that is right for everyone country in the world. Rather, I think there are certain global standards that health care systems should do their best do adhere to.
When discussing the different examples of healthcare as you have before, I agree that we tend to loose sight of all the shortcomings that can arise from universal healthcare systems. It really just asks what is more important? No healthcare system comes without its laundry list of problems but we have to decide (mainly based on the economy of the country) what healthcare system will work best? What problems are we willing to take on to get that system? What are we willing to give up? It all comes down to some form of priority setting or another because in the end there will never be a perfect healthcare system even on a country specific level.
I think this is really unfortunate that people can take advantage of the free health care they are offered. I believe that this flaw is not in the law itself which provides free healthcare to all, but it is a flaw in those who overuse and abuse the free healthcare. I believe that one of the biggest things that can save the quality of health care for all, is to place a cap on the amount of visits people make to a hospital .I believe it would be in the best interest for all patients and even the very tired doctors to turn away patients who are imagining their illnesses and symptoms or for those patients who have minor ailments. I believe the doctors will be able to focus their time on patients that are more ill and also on patients where ordered tests and procedures would not be a waste. I believe that the difficult part in placing a cap on the doctor visits or on dictating which ailments require physicians is that these ideas are all subjective. Opinions will differ where people sit down to decide when the free healthcare will stop. But I believe it will also be facile to see when there are patients overusing the health care system.
I do believe universal health care is important, however and benefits a great deal of people. To ensure that everyone is receiving adequate health care, I believe that it would be important to utilize nurses and physician assistants who will be able to decide whether an ailment requires the time of the doctor. This way, too many people are not overworked.
After reading your argument, I do not think there is an ideal healthcare system. Since every country is economically, culturally, and geographically unique; as stated, no specific healthcare system is applicable to all. Universal and free healthcare sounds ideal; however, this causes lines at the doctor’s office, abuse of free services, and a poorer quality of service. Since people are complaining of potentially harmless issues in Taiwan and abusing the healthcare system, I like Kimberly’s idea of placing a cap on doctoral visits. The only issues are knowing when complaints are truly problematic and disregarding minor problems, which allows them to turn into serious problems. Unfortunately, these drawbacks are enough to make capping doctoral visits almost impossible to execute. For example, if a patient complained of an ailment that a nurse deemed unworthy of a doctoral visit, but it was in fact the beginning of a life-threatening illness, then law suits are the next step.
Charging patients for healthcare is probably necessary in avoiding abuse, poor quality, and lines at doctor’s offices. Although this makes it difficult for the less fortunate to access medical care, the benefits outweigh the costs.
Overall, a universal and free healthcare system can be easily abused; hence, it is best to see what fits a country geographically, economically, and culturally.
You bring up a lot of good points in your posting on the topics of access to health care and the debate over the ideal health care system. When it comes to the right to health, I do not think that people have the right be healthy. Rather I think people have the right to live in a place where the governing body creates conditions that promote people being as healthy as possible. Health and health care are not one in the same. The right to health is composed of a right to the protection of health which is further composed of healthy conditions and medical care. It’s a misconception that better health care automatically means better health outcomes. In some cases, more care can even mean worse outcomes. Health care is only a piece of the health puzzle.
I like how you incorporate your personal experiences into the international healthcare debate because they highlight very important aspects and discussion points at large. As indicated in your descriptions, cultural and societal factors play a huge role in a country’s healthcare. These factors influence how individuals perceive disease and health, particularly mental health. In some societies, Alzheimer’s may be perceived as a natural part of aging while other societies see it as a neurodegenerative disease. If countries cannot come to a consensus about which diseases are to be included under an international healthcare bill then the foundation for the policy is weakened. For that reason, a perfect worldwide healthcare system can never be achieved.
The free rider problem is, (and always will be), a major problem in any healthcare system. The key is to have a safety net so that the problem does not get out of hand. In America, we have many safety nets, (eligibility to government insurance, taxation, coverage levels, premiums, etc), but we are so unhealthy that it is overwhelming the system. Maybe the French Health system wouldn’t work in America. For example, we have a very high standard for hospital appearance/cleanliness, and in France, every hospital looks poor quality. We even have an American not-for-profit hospital (that relies on donations) in France so we can receive American standard of care while abroad.
I think another pretty big issue is the types of diseases we have in America. We tend to suffer from chronic diseases rather than acute diseases, and this is the most expensive type of thing to treat. These are the diseases of affluence. America is known for having the highest rates of tobacco deaths, CVD, obesity/overweight, and other diseases related to unhealthy diet and lifestyle. At this point, could we possibly copy another country’s healthcare system and expect it to work any better?
While people are pointing out the misfortune of healthcare systems that allow citizens to “take advantage of seeing a doctor”, we should keep in mind that this is also a great benefit. In the long run, this reduces the burden on tax payers and patients who need to pay extra. This is because if people go to seek medical attention during early symptoms, checkups, and for diagnostic tests, the much costlier diseases can be prevented, or prolonged. Not only does this curtail potential costs, but increases the quality (not just longevity) of each life.
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