***This blog is a reflection on the Frontline series, Sick Around the World, a documentary that looks at five different health care systems (UK, Japan, Germany, Taiwan & Switzerland). None of them are perfect and all have lessons for us, but all of them cover all their citizens at less cost. Eric’s comments pertain to the Swiss model which utilizes private insurance but, unlike here, they are highly regulated.
By: Eric Lazarus, VT for Single Payer Supporter from Burlington
T.R. Reid’s story on Frontline, touring the heatlhcare systems in several industrial countries, was certainly informative and helpful in thinking about solving our own healthcare problem, but the country that most aroused my interest was Switzerland. The story describes a contest between liberals and conservatives, which was finally resolved through a compromise solution where private insurance companies would sell government designed insurance policies at a pre-determined rate, and with pre-determined payments to providers. People at the lowest income levels receive a government subsidy to help pay their premium. No one has to pay for healthcare to the point of bankruptcy.
This would be a huge improvement over our own system, but the Swiss system has some problems. Except for ours it is the most expensive among industrial countries (though unlike ours, everyone has access to healthcare). TR Reid says in this story that the premium at the time of filming was “$700″ (Swiss equivalent monthly I presume), and that the Swiss government was having problems funding the system, while at the same time facing strong resistance from the public against raising the premium.
To me, this demonstrates an important congruence between a system which, as a matter of fairness, determines how much people pay according to their ability to pay, and the ability of a system to raise necessary funds. Where almost everyone pays the same premium, the degree of sacrifice some experience becomes greater everytime the premium is increased until most “working” people are paying up to and beyond the limit of their cash flow. That puts a brake on the ability of the system to raise funds, and ultimately (if medical inflation is stronger than general inflation), on the sustainability of the system.