In PBS’ “Healthcare: The U.S. vs the World”, we were given an insight into the stark contrast between healthcare delivery in the United States and other industrialized countries. The video displays our industrialized peers have changed and their evolved their healthcare system to make it more patient friendly and more effective overall. Despite the United States utilizing more resources and having more capital than their industrialized peers, they consistently have among the lowest rates of life expectancy among industrialized countries. For those who are already familiar with healthcare on a global scale, the fact that other industrialized nations can deliver healthcare on a more proficient scale is not a surprise. The video does a strong job at highlighting the key differences between healthcare in the United States versus our counterparts, and its effects on our citizens.
At the start of the video, the healthcare system in the United States is examined with a closer lens. As mentioned before, the United States easily accrues the most capital and has the most expensive healthcare system compared their counterparts. However, it is further discussed how we have the least effective healthcare system and that translates to us being close to last in several healthcare statistics. For example, even though it is not discussed in the video, the United States has the among the worst rates of maternal mortality, not just compared to industrialized countries, but on a global scale. The fact the United States does not have universal medical coverage places a large percentage of their citizens at a severe disadvantage. The video mentioned that close to 30 million United States citizens lack medical coverage, making them more susceptible to long term health issues. As a United States citizen, I have always pondered what it would take for our healthcare system to translate to a model that is utilized by other industrialized countries.
Even though each system has their own set of pros and cons, I believe the healthcare systems utilized by the remaining countries have easily proven to be more effective. Those healthcare systems adopted by the European countries make it more convenient for their citizens to have health coverage. Starting with the United Kingdom, their healthcare system is a single payer system in which the taxes paid by citizens cover medical expenses. United Kingdom citizens are all afforded quality healthcare, no matter their status or income. Based on the video, this healthcare model has shown to be adept when it comes to primary and specialty. This does tend to lead to patients being placed on waitlists for extended period. In Switzerland, it is required that all citizens have health coverage and is considered universal; however, they are presented with several different options regarding coverage.
The healthcare system in Australia is considered a hybrid system where citizens have the option to select a public or private health insurance plan. Even though it could be considered a bit more complex, I think this healthcare system is one I found myself in favor of. Citizens who would prefer to have private insurance and is able to afford it should have the option to purchase it. Yet, at the least, citizens should have basic access to quality healthcare and not have to worry about receiving a large medical bill. Citizens of Canada receive publicly funded healthcare and are only responsible for paying for the cost of medication upon receiving treatment.
PBS did an exceptional job at analyzing each healthcare system in the respective countries from an unbiased perspective. It highlighted the great and not so great things about each healthcare model and how it fits into the culture of each country. When watching the video, I still find myself befuddled at the current state of our healthcare system here in the United States. The countries analyzed in the video are certainly economic powers in their right, but not to the degree of the United States; and yet, they are able to produce statistics that would indicate the health of their citizens are in a much stronger position. Citizens should always have a right to basic healthcare and should have access to have their medical issues addressed.
Hi Joshua! I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I also felt that PBS did an excellent job with this film and it gave me more context for understanding how and why the U.S. healthcare system is so fragmented. This is something I have always heard talked about but have not truly come to understand well until I started having my own experiences getting my own health insurance and learning more about the system through my master’s program. Additionally, this film continued to provide context for me and I thought it was particularly helpful that other countries’ systems were portrayed. I also want to add that I appreciated that this film did not seem to favor one system over another and seemed to discuss both pros and cons of respective systems.
I agree with you that the U.S. healthcare system has a lot of room for improvement and the statistic of nearly 30 million U.S. citizens being uninsured is disheartening. However, I do not want to overlook the idea in the video that the political system of the U.S. may make the path to universal healthcare in the U.S. more difficult than others. I was intrigued by this point in the video and so I did some additional research for context of how U.S. history, culture, and politics play a role in the healthcare system. I wrote more about this in my original blog post, although I believe the points mentioned by Vladeck (2003) are interesting because the article discusses why political change is difficult and why these changes are needed in order to produce U.S. healthcare reform. In addition to Congress changes and other political factors, I think it is important not to overlook the size of the United States and how politics vary from state to state. I definitely think U.S. healthcare reform is warranted, although I feel political changes may need to take place prior in order to feel effects of such a shift.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447684/