Some Lessons About Obamacare, Single-Payer, and an Example From Denmark
The Danish health care system is the nightmare of any anti-government free market believer: it's a tax-funded state-run universal health care system.
Denmark provides "free" health care to all residents, funded through taxes. According to OECD's Health Data, the Danish health care system delivers healthcare at roughly half the cost that Americans pay. Danish health care covers everybody - 100 percent of the population-while in the U.S. fewer than 80 percent of citizens are covered, and often only partially.
But the real question is: what makes Danish health care so cheap? It's not because it's of poorer quality. According to international surveys, more than 90 percent of Danes are totally satisfied with their health care, and it uses the most advanced methods available anywhere. And per capita there are more hospital beds and doctors than in the U.S.
It's mainly cheap because it's a lot simpler to manage. There are no medical insurance companies or lawyers or lobbyists operating for profit, or financial background checks. There are no uninsured, so there is no paperwork if you get sick or injured.
Of course Denmark's universal health care means a higher overall tax bill and that healthy people are indeed paying for the treatment of sick people through their taxes. But because the system is simpler and less profit-oriented, it ends up being cheaper for everybody.
That, of course, is the exact opposite of what is happening with Obamacare. Obamacare does nothing to control unit costs, and it does nothing to curb the bloated waste created by the U.S. where health care financing is siphoned off by lawyers, administrators, and insurance companies; the cost of lobbying lawmakers and advertising is astronomical.
U.S. health care is the most expensive system on earth and incredibly wasteful. Denmark and some other Scandinavian countries clearly prove that a government-run system can provide its population with superior care without being inefficient, bloated, or costly.
Stronger state regulations ensure that the money pouring through the system ends up where it's supposed to: with doctors and health care providers.
The pharmaceutical industry still gets its fair share since medication is still bought on the free market, which rewards innovation.
A greater degree of government involvement in health care might be un-American, but when the American system has abjectly failed, a refusal to look abroad for better models is simply self-defeating.
Sources: http://goo.gl/gvHhvY
http://goo.gl/X0q19
Denmark provides "free" health care to all residents, funded through taxes. According to OECD's Health Data, the Danish health care system delivers healthcare at roughly half the cost that Americans pay. Danish health care covers everybody - 100 percent of the population-while in the U.S. fewer than 80 percent of citizens are covered, and often only partially.
But the real question is: what makes Danish health care so cheap? It's not because it's of poorer quality. According to international surveys, more than 90 percent of Danes are totally satisfied with their health care, and it uses the most advanced methods available anywhere. And per capita there are more hospital beds and doctors than in the U.S.
It's mainly cheap because it's a lot simpler to manage. There are no medical insurance companies or lawyers or lobbyists operating for profit, or financial background checks. There are no uninsured, so there is no paperwork if you get sick or injured.
Of course Denmark's universal health care means a higher overall tax bill and that healthy people are indeed paying for the treatment of sick people through their taxes. But because the system is simpler and less profit-oriented, it ends up being cheaper for everybody.
That, of course, is the exact opposite of what is happening with Obamacare. Obamacare does nothing to control unit costs, and it does nothing to curb the bloated waste created by the U.S. where health care financing is siphoned off by lawyers, administrators, and insurance companies; the cost of lobbying lawmakers and advertising is astronomical.
U.S. health care is the most expensive system on earth and incredibly wasteful. Denmark and some other Scandinavian countries clearly prove that a government-run system can provide its population with superior care without being inefficient, bloated, or costly.
Stronger state regulations ensure that the money pouring through the system ends up where it's supposed to: with doctors and health care providers.
The pharmaceutical industry still gets its fair share since medication is still bought on the free market, which rewards innovation.
A greater degree of government involvement in health care might be un-American, but when the American system has abjectly failed, a refusal to look abroad for better models is simply self-defeating.
Sources: http://goo.gl/gvHhvY
http://goo.gl/X0q19
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