(December 7, 2024 at 4:20 am)zebo-the-fat Wrote: The problem is that in the UK health care is a service, in the USA health care is a business.
How can it be fair when the simple act of getting sick or injured can leave you bankrupt?
Japan's system works well because they have separated health insurance from health care.
Everyone in the country has single-payer insurance through the government. This is good at any clinic or hospital in the country.
By far the majority of small clinics are privately owned by the doctor in charge. Though prices are set by the government, good doctors are rewarded because their patients like them and go back. This gives the doctors a capitalist incentive to do a good job, and keep their patients happy and alive. Though the insurance is socialized, the health care is more free-market than elsewhere.
Neighborhood gossip makes it clear what each clinic is like -- this doctor is good with kids, and that one with old people, and this one prescribes a lot of medicine, while that one is reluctant. Customer/patients can make informed choices, and there's never an issue with needing to stay "in network" or going to a place that your insurance selects for you.
