This week we will conclude our look at health care reform and the recent study by Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute. By studying the health care systems of other nations throughout the world, Tanner learned lessons that he says can be useful to the United States.
As you will recall, the last two weeks we looked at 1.) overall findings of the study and 2.) actual U.S. health care spending and the WHO’s ranking of the U.S. as 37th of 191 health care systems.
Tanner concludes his study by acknowledging that the U.S. health care system has its problems, including rising costs, too many people without health insurance, and uneven quality of care. He notes that each system in place in other countries has its challenges and also points out that none of these other systems would “translate directly to the United States.” Tanner explains that, “Americans are unlikely to accept the rationing or restrictions on care and technology that many countries use to control costs. Nor are U.S. physicians likely to accept a cut in income to the levels seen in countries like France or Germany.”
“The broad and growing trend in countries with national health care systems is to move away from centralized government control and introduce more market-oriented features,” according to Tanner. Therefore Tanner believes United States policymakers should take a close look at that trend in making decisions for the future of the health care system. In fact, he says if we can take one lesson from health care systems of other nations around the world, “it is not to follow the road to government-run national health care, but to increase consumer incentives and control. The United States can increase coverage and access to care, improve quality, and control costs without importing the problems of national health care.”
Here are a few more findings from the study we found of particular interest and wanted to share.
- “U.S. patients are actually more likely than Canadians to receive preventive care for chronic or serious health conditions.
- Strong evidence suggests that the exposure of Swiss consumers to the cost consequences of their health care decisions has made them more conscious consumers.
- More than two-thirds (69 percent) [of Italians] believe that giving patients more control over health care spending will improve the system’s quality. And 55 percent believe that it should be easier for patients to spend their own money on health care.
- One out of every three Canadian physicians sends a patient to the United States for treatment each year, and those patients along with the Canadian government spend more than $1 billion annually on health care in this country.
- Alan Jacobs of Harvard points out that despite significant differences in goals, content, and strategies, European nations are generally converging toward market practices in health care. Thus, even as Americans debate adopting a government-run system, countries with those systems are debating how to make their systems look more like that of the United States.”
Well, we’re sure the debate will continue, but we found Michael Tanner’s study to be most enlightening, and we hope you have benefited from taking a look at some of his findings. If you would like to review the entire study, it can be found at http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9272.
At Preferred Benefits LLC we can help you do a realistic assessment of your current insurance portfolio. We can make suggestions that may save you money and in other cases even expand your coverage for the money you are currently spending. Such an assessment should be done annually.
Please contact us for a FREE assessment of your insurance portfolio. This personalized customer service is a cornerstone of our business. We look forward to being of service to you.
TOLL-FREE 877-302-5810
Spread the word
del.icio.us Digg Furl Reddit Ask BlinkList blogmarks Google Ma.gnolia Netscape RawSugar Rojo Shadows Simpy Socializer Spurl StumbleUpon Tailrank Technorati Windows Live Wists Yahoo! Help
