Change is ok!

If I had 10 minutes I would say:

The U.S. is spending more money than any other country on health care, however we do not have very much to show for it. Our system is clearly unsustainable leaving around 45 million Americans uninsured. We fail to see that universal health care is a good and necessary measure, even though it is working in other countries. The time to act is now, we must take it upon ourselves to help fellow Americans and make it so that no one is denied the right to staying healthy. One effective method we could use is to look outside our borders at what other countries are doing and how it is actually working.

Our system focuses on treatment as opposed to prevention, causing prices to spiral upwards even more so. Instead of putting most of our funding into programs that would prevent, educate, and promote- we wait until the individual gets very sick. Looking at systems abroad, we see how flawed this is. In the United Kingdom, doctors are provided with monetary incentives for keeping their patients healthy. They are rewarded for any preventative measures they implement. I believe this same method should be implemented in the U.S.

In addition, I realize that the U.S is founded upon principles of individuality and capitalism. I understand that this is an integrally rooted part of our culture. We want government out of the picture as much as feasibly possible. However, I would like to say that if we look abroad- the government is very involved in the health care system, and it does not mean that the government has taken over those countries and has left the people powerless. Theoretically speaking, it is the government's responsibility after all to take care of its people, otherwise it is not doing its job and it is failing to address the people's needs. That is why we created government right? To appoint leaders who would voice the opinions of the unheard, to protect the rights of the people, to promote the well-being and success of all citizens, and to implement what is the best interest of us as the people. Why then, are we saying: "government involvement in health care? Heck no! " We need to look at countries such as China, Japan, and Germany and realize that the government is involved and it is not a bad thing. I am not saying that the government needs to take complete control of the system, I am simply saying that the government needs to get involved and we need to be ok with that.

If I had 10 minutes here's what I would say:

The United States is the only Western developed country that does not have universal health care - this is inexcusable given that the US is the richest and most powerful country in the world. How can we be so self-righteous and claim to uphold "human rights" when people die prematurely in the US from poorly managed and preventable conditions or declare bankruptcy because they can't afford their medical bills. How can we take a stance on torture, terrorism, or human rights and be taken seriously? How do we allow insurance companies to discriminate based on gender or pre-existing conditions? Is this really so different from discrimination based on race, religion, or sexual orientation? The United States has a moral obligation to reform its health care system.

Even if one disputes that health care is a human right, our system must be reformed for more practical reasons. At 14.6% of our GDP, we spend substantially more than any other country - Switzerland doesn't even come close at 11.4% of GDP. But are we getting our money's worth for all the extra billions we spend per year? No. Actually for health indicators such as infant mortality and life expectancy we're more on par with Costa Rica and South Korea. If we continue on this current path, it will bankrupt our nation.

For both moral and practical reason, we must reform US health care policy and ensure that adequate health care is affordable and accessible for all. There are many different ways to achieve this and we have many examples to choose from. We have merely to open our eyes and look beyond our borders to see the many routes other developed nations have taken to achieve the universal and affordable coverage. Ultimately, the question is not whether to reform our system, but how to reform it.

Looking into other countries health care systems

First, the U.S policy makers should consider the fact that all industrialized countries are doing better than us, and the U.S is not having one of the best health care systems in the world. We must look into the systems that are either closest to ours, like Germany or Japan, or the ones that are working as best, like the French or the UK. I believe that the UK's system, although cost-efficient and functional, is not going to sell in this country at this moment. The Japan's system would make the health care providers, as one of the many interested parties, miserable, and they are not going to let it happen. We should look into Germany's system, with private health care providers and multiple, at times, private payers. Then, in the long run, we can make adjustments from ideas from France and the UK since their systems are ranked better and their people are the happiest with their system.

US needs to think outside its borders

Congress should be reminded that US ranks near bottom in health and ranks highest in GDP spent on health care. To find a solution, US needs to think outside its borders; they need to adopt ideas used from other countries. Does US believe they are a privilege, invincible, free country that shouldn’t have to borrow ideas from any one; the best countries know how to use their resources most effectively. Whatever happened to learning from your mistakes? Also, what about learning from others’ mistakes? In US, majority of people lack health care, people are going bankrupted from health care, people are receiving unnecessary health care (surgery, tests, etc), yet spends most on health care. DUH, there is something wrong with the US health care system. Taking a look at other countries, France, for example, was once ranked first for the best health care system in the world while still having a lower GDP on health care than US. Switzerland, once had a fragmented system reformed itself to having good health care, also while still having a lower GDP on health care than US. Where is all the money going, if not to help the patients? Physicians’ salaries, inefficient administration, unnecessary services, malpractice, specialty physicians, etc? US should take a look at Taiwan, who again, once a fragment health care system, modeled from other countries, learned from what didn’t work, and created a brand new system. If US continues to keep to itself, they are just going to invest more into a broken health care system and with poorer health status. So duh, is it not obvious that they should adopt ideas from abroad?

Drop your EGO, U.S.!

I think the U.S. thinks they are "the best" country out there and just has this ego and is too "good" to turn to other countries for help. If they just dropped their attitude and listened to other countries, possibly they might learn a thing or two. I would bring up first, our errors-for instance, our "health care system" that has left a large part of the population bankrupt and now homeless or in major debt. As well as those who are unemployed and uninsured. Then I would compare our country and similar issues with other countries, for instance, Taiwan or Switzerland or even Japan. I would definitely mention that Taiwan did their research while "shopping around" for a good health care system by turning to other countries and they are doing fine now.
Switzerland made it work also by reforming-so I would basically put emphasis on learning from other countries and stop being so egotistical because as of now, we are not getting any better. I would also mention or show some type of flow chart that proves, if we keep up the way we are right now, our whole country could be in a huge problem-affecting not only the poor, but EVERYONE!

Increase Preventive Care

Having a national or public option can help increase preventive care, thus reducing the number of diseases that could have been caught earlier than to wait until its very late then rushed to the emergency room as most Americans are doing. Learning from other countries who give its citizens basic care, helps its citizens not to worry about beating the system on making a certain amount to remain poor to be covered by the government. The US must act fast because health care alone can cause families to go bankrupt just because of their health condition, not really making this nation the great one it portrays to be.

Health care is very important to the US people and it should be considered as such since its a major concern to families to sit home and get scared to go to the hospital because of the cost after the services received and a major concern to most health professional because they are not able to give out their best to most of their patients.

The question has been the same for years, if the rich can afford their health care how about the poor?

controlling costs!

Although our nation was built based on mainly independence and capitalism, when it comes to the health care it is actually wise and useful to understand and learn what other approaches exist from other nations. We already have bits of every health care system in the world in some sense. There are socialized one which the government runs the hospitals and employs the doctors (VA). And like Canada, there are private health care deliveries via health insurance companies and the government administers through a single payer system (Medicare). Finally, there are private insurance plans that everyone is required to purchase, premiums are paid through tax and the government provides subsidies for low-income citizens (MA State).

Then what is the problem? The major problem is that a large fraction of the U.S. populations are still uninsured or underinsured relatively to the amount of money we spend on the health care. Other developed nations do as well or better than U.S. system on every dimension, while costing far less money.

10 minutes is obviously not enough time to talk about such a major issue like health care reform. At some point we all need to share risk and it does not matter if you are health care providers, insurers, employers, poor or old and to prevent unequal distribution of risk, more people are actually better. I think the main issue in Obama health care reform deals with the controlling costs. Our fragmented system seems to favor supply side of the market and people are paying much higher prices due to this shortage of affordable supply. Therefore we need to find ways to control costs of supply more effectively.

What Can't We Learn From Our Neighbors?

Like all countries, the US has characteristics that make it unique from other countries and characteristics that we share with some or all of our neighbors. We pride ourselves on our idea of individual freedom and capitalism. Yet we are the only developed country that relies on the market to regulate our health care. We, as a society, need to escape from the idea that the market regulates itself. That may be true, of a transparent, free market. Which is not what we have. We have tremendous influence by specialist and industrial lobbies, and the government interferes in the market which makes it unable to regulate itself. Furthermore, the market can't regulate itself when the demand is so intimately tied into human emotion and health. I can go without a fancy car if its too expensive, but am I going to deny my daughter the expensive CT scan the doctor says she needs?

The most important thing we need to take from other countries is to treat access to health care as a fundamental human right, regardless of race, or creed, or gender, or income level, then we may take the next step. We need to look into options for non-profit insurance options, which will work within our free market system to bring down prices such as they have in Sweden and Australia. We need to look to other, successful systems to try to keep the medical community regulated, help them to regulate themselves, such as the NICE committee in the U.K., which centrally reviews new technologies, drugs and treatments and reviews the evidence supporting them and makes recommendations.

We need to encourage (NOT MANDATE) those recommendations and encourage our health care providers to follow them, by including internal reviews within hospitals and local umbrella organizations, and including state of the art care recommendations at medical meetings and practice bulletins in medical journals. Universal medical records will decrease the cost of repeating tests and improve communication between professionals. We need to focus on the primary care and preventative medicine, and reserve specialty care for those who truly need it. The primary care provider needs to take responsibility for coordinating specialist care and maintaining basic health care while allowing specialists to focus on their specialty, with financial incentives for physicians providing primary care based on combination indices of numbers of patients and health parameters of those patients.

We need to learn from ourselves too! We need to look at what has worked within our states at a local level, where caps on lawsuit pay-outs for malpractice have decreased the cost of malpractice insurance and encouraged physicians to continue to practice in states such as California and Texas. Medical systems that are relatively self contained and able to share information, with physicians paid by salary (based on a composite of number of patients seen and procedures performed) are more cost effective and provide more standardized care without sacrificing quality, such as the Kaiser system in northern California and the Mayo Clinic.

The Isolated Health Care System

I think one of the shortcomings of the United States is they aren't willing to learn from abroad because they want to be the world leader. The problem with this reasoning is by learning from others gains you more power and respect. I would try to be sensitive to this way of thinking when discussing health care systems abroad. I would talk about Taiwan and how they investigated what worked the best worldwide to design their health care system. I would also discuss Germany because they are a "Western" developed country with a private influence in their health care system so that United States can relate. Those would be the two countries from abroad I'd discuss to influence and reach the United States and its "superpower" way of thinking. The United States needs to be open to abroad ideas and not set on remaining isolated with its health care system.

America: Land of the Brave

As a few fellow students before have mentioned we are a country formed from a small minority that felt they were underserved and decided to fix their situation. We left an unpopular system and created a system that worked for the majority. Maybe not every portion of our government and its laws are perfect but for the most part they serve the needs of the majority. Our country is a very young one compared to most of the nations of the world and we have the opportunity to fix what is broken. Our health care system is not currently serving the needs of the majority.
I believe that similar to our tax system some of our citizens will end up paying a larger portion of the financial burden but it will serve a benefit to the whole.

Americans are offered a large amount of specialty care with little gatekeeping and even less primary care. In a study published in the Journal of Family Practice (Shi L., et al. Income inequality, Primary Care, and Health Indicators.), it was shown that primary care and life expectancy are positively correlated. Due to the lack of financial and insurance assistance many of our citizens are experiencing inappropriate access and using our emergency rooms and urgent care clinics as primary care facilities. These facilities are not meant for this and are collapsing under the volume of patients and the lack of professionals to care for them. To encourage physicians to focus on primary care as their specialty I think we could learn from the UK and pay our primary care physicians as much as the specialty physicians.

We could learn from Japan and the price fixing of its services and procedures. Hopefully, this could lower the amount of unnecessary and expensive defensive medicine over-testing. We also could learn a lot from Japan's highly employer based system. In Switzerland, there is a profit incentive for better quality of care. This not only insures that every citizen will receive care but that their physicians are dually motivated to provide quality care.

Americans need to be convinced that health care is a right not a privilege. As a society we tend to look at the uninsured as victims and we think we have the right to determine whether they are deserving of health care or not. Just as with our Constitution, we should pick and choose the best from each countries systems in order to create a more complete and working US health care system.

The U.S. health care system is private base, and the public plans which like Medicaid, Medicare and SCHIP only are available for little population; U.S. is the country who spends nearly 15% of G.D.P. per year on health care with little gain. If I had 10 minutes to sit in front of the whole Congress, I would definitely tell them just take other countries success plans into consideration. The health budget can learn from Japan and Germany health systems, which have the annual standard price conference that benefits patients and customers. Japan has the private health provision system just like U.S., and Japanese government insures that the private physicians, clinics, and hospitals provide the access to all health care. The Senate Finance Committee said no to the public health insurance option last month, and maybe the insurance plans can learn from Switzerland who had the smooth health care reform in 1994; the Switzerland government try to control the health care cost while guaranteeing universal access to basic health care package by provided insurance coverage from both public and private companies, they actually made private insurance market not so profit orientation. There are different health care systems all over the world, and each system has its own strength; the U.S. system should have the chance to improve and provide better care to its people.

learning from the past

Our country was founded by men and women who left one bad situation in search of a better solution. As we created our United States of America, we looked to our former home in Europe to help us decide how we wanted to shape our own government . We looked at components we didn't like, we looked at positive factors, and we took these observations to create our own system.

Why can we not do this again? Let us follow the actions that lead us to create the United States of America and step away from a bad system. We know that not only do we not like our current healthcare system, but we also know that it simply is not working. We have examined our system and are struggling to determine what would be best for us now. Lets us again look over to Europe and other nations to help us create our own system.

There is much to be learned from these other systems. We can look at the positive and negative aspects to the systems in the UK, France, Cuba, and Taiwan. We can create a new healthcare system that does not leave 17% of the population without health insurance and struggling to pay for even basic healthcare. We need to focus on our people., the people that make us a democracy. So let us step away from a bad system, learn from our peers and create our own new better system.

Pick and Choose

We need to learn from our neighbors. We have a health care system that has left millions of citizens bankrupt and in debt because of medical bills. And we still have other millions who are uninsured. We need major transformation.

Why not look to neighboring countries to see their mistakes and successes in their health care systems. Then pick and choose aspects of systems that have proven to work. Taiwan did exactly this. They shopped around for the most successful health care ingredients and made their own, new system. Why continue to look for answers within, when all we need to do is look abroad?

Imitation Is The Key For Success

We’re the United States of America, a country defined by our pursuit of independence and freedom. Unfortunately, this characteristic has caused us to believe that we can solve any problem by looking within our own borders instead of outward. Consequently, our healthcare system, which is the most technologically advanced and filled with the best-trained physicians in the world, is suffering through lack of affordability and access. In order to change, we need to emulate the best health care system, France, which pays for 75% of the cost through income taxes while the patient covers the rest out of pocket or through purchasing private health insurance. That’s only the beginning of where we need to look. I know the concept of copying is not one our nation wishes to go through but we have to remember that’s how started our own country by copying democracy from Greece and improving on it. It’s gone pretty well so far, I’d say.
The second aspect is asking the people who know best about their systems: physicians, nurses, dentists and pharmacists not politicians and lobbyists. It is expensive to fly these people in and put them in hotels but it’s a small cost for the knowledge they bring. The third and final aspect is to listen to these people; we’re an ignorant country that sometimes ignores sound advice. If we’re going to get better, we just need to listen and take notes.

Lets broaden our horizons

The internal debate amongst U.S. citizens over the re-structuring of our health care system has been filled with much passion, doubt, and fear. Naturally, Americans have grown accustomed to our current infrastructure and the thought of change is feared. Instead of dealing with the uncertainty of what system will function best in our country, why not broaden our horizons and diligently study the success and failures of other countries. This idea of looking to our neighbors is nothing new, we are on a daily basis influenced by products from China, corporations in Europe, and automobiles from Japan. We have grown as a country by learning from the examples of others and have even in past wars, directly relied on the support of other countries. Health care reform should not be an exception. Congress should wisely chose high-ranking health care officials to the U.S. and attentively listen to their input into how they recommend change for us. A committee could be established to learn the models of other countries and develop an educated stance on how to reform ours. Thus, by learning the successes of other developed nations, we can become more informed in making our choices. This approach was a similar one employed by Taiwan; they were able to avoid downfalls and embrace successes of the health care systems from other countries. One thing is clear, the U.S. health care system will be undergoing drastic changes, do we want to gamble or do we want to make an educated decision?

baby steps.

The United States is changing and health care system in the United States also needs to change in the way health is delivered and the way the system is run; we need a change. Though we all agree on this and that is why we are here in Congress debating the health care reform. It is always wise to learn from mistakes, those of your own and those of others. Therefore I think it is worth the time for US health care reform committees to consider lessons learned by looking at mistakes and accomplishments of reformed foreign health care systems around the world.
It is widely known that when a society is physically healthy and well the people are happier, more productive, and live more fulfilling lives. It would also be widely accepted that this is the desired state for all societies. Therefore, I would like to direct your attention to three main reform lessons: 1. National health Care coverage actually protects your people better than providing health services only to your citizens; 2. Increased Primary Care Services saves lives and saves money; 3. Implementing only Not-for-Profit Health Insurance Companies would control currently inflating cost of health care. Change occurs with baby steps and due to current opposition to ideas of national health care coverage, I believe current reform can negotiate small steps following suit from foreign health care policies and bring about better services for the American people and her inhabitants.
First, National Health Care Coverage, I believe we can learn from looking at the UK, German, France, Switzerland, New Zealand, Cuban, Taiwan, and Japanese systems to see that disease knows no boundaries. As policy makers we make decisions with our Citizens best health at heart and acknowledge that in order to do so we must treat all people living within her boarders. This is where much current reform becomes heated. Please consider, for example, what people groups currently work many of the service jobs in the USA today. Are many of them not undocumented workers or refugees? Health disparities already exist among these disadvantaged minority groups and by providing health insurance for America’s citizens but denying health care coverage to these disadvantaged groups would only put them at higher risk for contracting disease/infection, and so forth with decreased opportunity to receive treatment. However, if as a US government we were to offer health care to these minority populations by protecting our citizens, we would be protecting the health of our nation and her people in a more effective manner, not to mention acting in a truly just and humane way.
Secondly, with an additive mentality, we would increase front-line defense against disease prevention by promoting primary care services which would in-turn decrease the need for costly specialty services. The United Kingdom is a country we can learn this lesson from. Their health care system is built around this very concept. For example, the NHS (National Health Care Service) takes primary prevention seriously by providing incentives to primary care physicians who keep their patients healthy; reduce prevalence rates of high blood pressure, obesity, etc… in a given year. The investment is made into primary care services with the knowledge and proven statistics that preventing the onset of disease is a more cost-effective health care measure than treating disease with expensive, invasive specialty services. In addition, disease prevention keeps the nation’s people living happier, longer lives, their politicians included!
Thirdly, by permitting only Not-for-Profit Health Insurance companies to operate within the United States we would be able to control the quickly rising costs of medical insurance. The cost of Health Care Services has increased at an exuberant and unsustainable rate since 1970. If they continue to inflate at these rates, the current health care system will collapse under the burden of costs. The USA can learn from the not-for-profit health insurance companies operated for example in Germany. Where CEO companies operate on the prestige of running the most efficient and largest insurance company in the country, where the honor comes from doing their constituents a beneficial service, not paying their CEO’s 1.5 million dollar bonuses at the price of killing their customers.

A simple message.

The message would be quite simple. We need to remember to learn from previous mistakes—not only our own, but of other countries as well. Before we proceed to make significant changes in our health care system, we need to see what has been done before, what has worked, and what hasn’t worked. Take Taiwan for example, they dealt with their health care problems by creating a system with components from many different countries and tailored it to their own needs. We need to work not in isolation, but in synchrony with the other nations of the world. The health care problems must be recognized as a global issue and not solely a national issue. We might learn that having a market-based health insurance system might not be the best way to go, or we might learn that we can somehow involve nonprofit organizations might be better. However, we need to start the dialogue and the dialogue should start now because I think most of us will agree that health should be a fundamental human right to have and not simply a privilege owned by the few.

Well, in any other developed country, there is no such thing as people going bankrupt because they were trying to pay off their medical expenses. Other countries are able to cover their entire population, keep medical costs low, and still have high patient satisfaction and above average health outcomes.

However, when you put money into something, that means you are taking it out of or away from something else. Other developed countries are experiencing deficit because of their healthcare system. There is little funding for research, or for modernizing hospitals. There is little funding for medical technology. Ultimately, this means that care is rationed to a certain extent. Waiting times are longer. High-level procedures are not readily available.

In the end, if you take away a country's culture and environment--it doesn't matter if we are an individualistic society or a utilitarian one--it all comes down to whether we can budget wisely. Eliminate unnecessary costs. Strive to improve the efficiency of the system. Basically, cut out all the bull. Set a baseline for basic care, and move up from there. Negotiate with corporations and manufacturers for the best cost possible. Set a cap on how much insurance companies can make. Put a heavy tax on market items that are clearly proven to deteriorate consumer health, such as tobacco/cigarettes. Create new legislation to better monitor malpractice. These are all ways to save money. Can we budget wisely? That's something we need to really work on.