Best Healthcare Systems in the World - March Madness Bracket

[Christopher Loumeau]

I thought this NYT piece on the best healthcare systems in the world going head to head against each other was both fun and interesting. Not a long read at all, and it allows anyone interested to get a sense of what a lot of other countries are doing in healthcare and to vote yourself on head to head matchups between countries. Feel free to shoot me any questions you have. I look forward to seeing people's thoughts.

-Christopher

[Marie Loumeau]

It was an interesting article. I kind of lost track of the stats after awhile. It's quite a bit of information to take in. I thought it was odd that Singapore controlled how many doctors there are and how much they can earn. I think you agree with the later but I don't. Thanks for passing it on. 

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On Oct 2, 2017, at 2:08 PM, Christopher Loumeau <christoph...@gmail.com> wrote:

I thought this NYT piece on the best healthcare systems in the world going head to head against each other was both fun and interesting. Not a long read at all, and it allows anyone interested to get a sense of what a lot of other countries are doing in healthcare and to vote yourself on head to head matchups between countries. Feel free to shoot me any questions you have. I look forward to seeing people's thoughts.

-Christopher

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[adam loumeau]

I think the problem Mom is that there is no free market when it comes to doctors. We don't have a free market in America either. The difference is the powerful lobby backing doctors has rigged the system unfairly in their direction. Some entity always has a thumb on the scales. Sadly, true free market capitalism can't exist anymore. 

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[Marie Loumeau]

Probably true. Greedy powerful people suck. 

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[Paul Cuff]

It's interesting that the US health care system almost came out on top in this lineup.  The top half were all 3-2 decisions.  The way health care is talked about here, you would think that the scholars would all ditch the US system in a heart-beat, but not so.

[Christopher Loumeau]

Good points Paul. Well it all depends on what you value right? America has BY FAR the best healthcare system if we ignore cost and access to anyone who isn't at least in the middle class. So for anyone who gets insurance via their employer for example, they are likely to be very pleased with their healthcare and for good reason. But because there are ~30 million uninsured Americans and another 50-70 million under insured Americans, our system generally scores poorly in aggregate. Plus we spend more than double any other first world country on healthcare, and most of that excess spend is pure waste.

[adam loumeau]

First off, I apologize Christopher for taking so long to read this article.  Really fantastic information!

It's interesting to see what everyone's biggest takeaway is from this article.  My biggest takeaway was Singapore's system.  I love the idea of health savings plans, supplemented to a degree by the government, as a means to force transparency of cost and empower the patient to make the best decision for themselves.  I am sure Singapore's gap in information provided to the public regarding their health outcomes is tied to poor access for the poor but Singapore spends a tiny amount on health care.  It seems like you could easily import much of Singapore's health care system while spending a little more to help the poor and still save a ton of money and have excellent health outcomes.

This sounds too simple to be true.  What am I missing?

[Christopher Loumeau]

Good eye Adam,

A lot of people are interested in Singapore's system, which marries some liberal concepts with conservative ones. I too love the idea of mandatory HSA's but you've seen how hard conservatives have fought against mandating people be personally accountable by requiring everyone get insurance. Can you fathom how hard the GOP would fight against mandating a percentage of our income go to HSA's?! I just don't know how politically viable that is, even though I agree that its a smart concept.

The other key thing about Singapore is that its not the melting pot America is, has a fraction of our population, and doesn't have nearly the chronic disease/obesity issues we have. So it would be MUCH more costly for us than it is for them. The reason that is important is that the Singapore government has a massive slush fund they draw from when their citizens have exorbitant healthcare costs that they cannot pay. Singapore has been able to afford this but there is no way in hell we ever could. 

This article from Vox earlier this year does a fantastic job of outlining their system in more depth. I think you'd really enjoy it Adam.

There are definitely some things we could learn from their system though, really from most other systems. 

[vivian.branner]

Thanks, all, for interesting thoughts.  I dislike the idea of forced anything.  But if we are forcing our citizens to cover everyone's medical costs then we should force citizens to be responsible with their money, such as forced Savings accounts.  And the transparency in the costs would be a good thing.  

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[adam loumeau]

"Can you fathom how hard the GOP would fight against mandating a percentage of our income go to HSA's?! I just don't know how politically viable that is"

That seems like a very conservative solution given the situation at hand.  I think any Republican who actually wants to legislate rather than voting "no" on everything automatically would support this kind of measure in a heartbeat.

"The other key thing about Singapore is that its not the melting pot America is"

I'm confused.  I thought Singapore was quite diverse.  What do you mean by this comment?

"and doesn't have nearly the chronic disease/obesity issues we have"

It's unbelievable that we finance junk food like we do in this country.

[adam loumeau]

Also, I very much enjoyed the article you sent about Singapore's health care system.

[Marie Loumeau]

Amen sister. 

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[Christopher Loumeau]

That seems like a very conservative solution given the situation at hand.  I think any Republican who actually wants to legislate rather than voting "no" on everything automatically would support this kind of measure in a heartbeat.

You would think so, but I could make the EXACT same argument about the ACA's individual mandate. It makes absolutely zero sense for conservatives to be against the individual mandate. I thought the GOP was the party of self-reliance, but this individual mandate issue has taught me that they are only interested in self-reliance when I republican claims the idea first. 

Singapore may be diverse relative to neighboring countries but its nothing like the US in terms of diversity. 

[adam loumeau]

By the way, how many problems in America can be blamed at least partially on our diverse population?  I know that sounds racist but it's so freaking true.  All of these liberal European countries that are so proud of themselves piggyback off of America's military and enjoy the benefits of a much less diverse society.  Everyone talks about how large the U.S. is population wise.  We have more ethnic diversity and that makes a lot of things much harder and more expensive.  That's just simply the truth but diversity isn't allowed to have drawbacks so liberals won't mention it.