Sure. The OECD average on healthcare spending is something like 9.5% of GDP. “Good” systems like the Nordics or Switzerland, spend a bit under 12%. From a policy standpoint, the issue is really just about how you get to that number, and obviously the Finns and Swedes have gone a different route from the Swiss or the super-efficient, but also heavy-handed Singaporese system.
For a simple intro, start here and here or a comparison of e.g. Swiss and Singapore systems here. The notion of medical tourism is interesting. What is striking is that no other government seems to have a problem with mandating. The GOP PR machine translates this to “makes you do this,” e.g. get insurance. The Swiss system still allows “choice” as in the American system, but you are not allowed the “choice” of going around uninsured. Certainly, most Americans accept a certain minimal amount of car insurance.
The GOP is acting the way that the GOP always does. No surprises there.
What I find really baffling is the health insurance industry. For an industry that represents 1/6 of the US economy, they sure don’t seem to mind being jerked around an awful lot. After years and years of the GOP abusing them again and again, the strongest response they can muster is a lame, weak “we wish we had a bit more clarity to clear up this confusion blah blah blah…”?
Well, that’s the public statement. They aren’t any different than other industries(like banks) in whining constantly about being abused–over the last few years they’ve been making a big fuss about business being slow because they were looking to justify mergers–Aetna was recently found guilty in federal court of doing this. Meantime they had their lobbyists, including Traitor Joe Lieberman sitting in the Obamacare negotiations, doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes. Now they’re just trying to keep their share of the pie as big as possible. Some of the companies are making more money than they know what to do with.
I love Obamacare. No doubt adjustments and improvements can be made. But as long as Republicans want to destroy the ACA, the more they look like fools who can govern.
Which is the intention. If Republicans can’t kill Obamacare through legislation, then they’re perfectly willing to kill it through malign incompetence.
My hope is that voter will pay some sort of attention to these clowns and remember the next time an election comes around.
Yeah, derp has consequences.
On a lighter note I began my day with Stephen Colbert:
FWIW, Geman system is the same, you have to have insurance. There is no single provider (i.e., no equivalent to NHS in the UK). There are state-regulated providers who follow certain rules (including limits on the amount of profit they can make) and there are “private” providers, which do not conform to many of the state regulations. You can choose your provider. The majority of Germans (I think I read somewhere around 90%) have policies with one of the state-regulated providers. They are more expensive than the private ones when you are younger, but stay pretty constant. The private providers offer cheaper rates when you are young, but as soon as you get a older, they start jockeying up the premiums a lot. Because there is a regulation as to the age at which you can switch from a state-regulated pool to a private pool. Once you have hit the “point of no switching”, the private ones start to get more expensive fast, but then you are stuck, whereas the premiums of the state-regulated remain pretty much consistent.
