Health Care Reform - Elsewhere

Elsewhere

As evidenced by the large variety of different health care systems seen across the world, there are several different pathways that a country could take when thinking about reform. In comparison to the UK, physicians in Germany have more bargaining power through professional organizations (i.e., physician associations); this ability to negotiate has an impact on reform efforts. Germany makes use of sickness funds, which citizens are obliged to join but are able to opt out if they have a very high income (Belien 87). The Netherlands used a similar system but the financial threshold for opting out was lower (Belien 89). The Swiss, on the other hand use more of a privately based health insurance system where citizens are risk-rated by age and sex, among other factors (Belien 90). The United States government provides health care to just over 25% of its citizens through various agencies, but otherwise does not employ a system. Health care is generally centered around regulated private insurance methods.

One key component to health care reform is the reduction of health care fraud and abuse. In the U.S. and the EU, it is estimated that as much as 10 percent of all health care transactions and expenditures may be fraudulent. See Terry L. Leap, Phantom Billing, Fake Prescriptions, and the High Cost of Medicine: Health Care Fraud and What to do about It (Cornell University Press, 2011).

Also interesting to notice is the oldest health care system in the world and its advantages and disadvantages, see Health in Germany.