Maybe Obama should sit down with the Swiss.
Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:08 pm
The Swiss seem to have figured it out.
Some 47 million Americans do not have even basic health insurance, while millions more fear they could also end up with no coverage if they lose their jobs or contract a serious illness. That's scandalous.
To remedy these defects, Obama initially proposed a comprehensive public-sector medicare plan to compete with private medical insurance. However, he seems to be backing away from this public option under pressure from critics who apprehend that it would be ruinously costly.
In a column in the New York Times, Paul Krugman, the left-wing, Nobel-prize-winning economist, pointed out a public option is not the only route. As an alternative, he speculated, Obama might endorse the Swiss medicare system, which relies entirely on private insurance companies to provide affordable care for everyone under government regulation.
The Swiss model requires every resident to purchase a basic medicare policy from one of several competing private insurance companies. To assure affordability, the government subsidizes premiums for the needy and requires the health insurers to offer basic coverage to all applicants at a uniform rate, regardless of age or medical history. The additional expense of insuring higher-cost clients is offset through reinsurance.
The Swiss are allowed to contract with private insurance companies for supplementary benefits beyond the basics required by the government. Yet on an age-adjusted basis, the total costs of medicare in Switzerland are no higher than in Canada.
This Swiss model works. It provides the Swiss people with superior medicare services without the long waiting times, shortages of medical technology and other chronic deficiencies.
Krugman is not alone in noting the Swiss success. The Dutch parliament decided in 2006 to replace the Netherlands' inefficient mix of public and private medicare with an all-private system based on the Swiss model. The Dutch health ministry boasts the new system delivers more choices, more competition and guarantees of affordability.
Let's hope the Obama administration likewise embraces the Swiss model of medicare that relies on competing private insurance companies to provide efficient and affordable coverage for everyone under strict government regulation.
The Dutch health ministry argues there is no alternative to competing private insurance companies as a means of ensuring better quality care, greater cost consciousness, better affordability and more tailor-made care through greater influence by customers.
(taken from an artical by Rory Leishman)
Some 47 million Americans do not have even basic health insurance, while millions more fear they could also end up with no coverage if they lose their jobs or contract a serious illness. That's scandalous.
To remedy these defects, Obama initially proposed a comprehensive public-sector medicare plan to compete with private medical insurance. However, he seems to be backing away from this public option under pressure from critics who apprehend that it would be ruinously costly.
In a column in the New York Times, Paul Krugman, the left-wing, Nobel-prize-winning economist, pointed out a public option is not the only route. As an alternative, he speculated, Obama might endorse the Swiss medicare system, which relies entirely on private insurance companies to provide affordable care for everyone under government regulation.
The Swiss model requires every resident to purchase a basic medicare policy from one of several competing private insurance companies. To assure affordability, the government subsidizes premiums for the needy and requires the health insurers to offer basic coverage to all applicants at a uniform rate, regardless of age or medical history. The additional expense of insuring higher-cost clients is offset through reinsurance.
The Swiss are allowed to contract with private insurance companies for supplementary benefits beyond the basics required by the government. Yet on an age-adjusted basis, the total costs of medicare in Switzerland are no higher than in Canada.
This Swiss model works. It provides the Swiss people with superior medicare services without the long waiting times, shortages of medical technology and other chronic deficiencies.
Krugman is not alone in noting the Swiss success. The Dutch parliament decided in 2006 to replace the Netherlands' inefficient mix of public and private medicare with an all-private system based on the Swiss model. The Dutch health ministry boasts the new system delivers more choices, more competition and guarantees of affordability.
Let's hope the Obama administration likewise embraces the Swiss model of medicare that relies on competing private insurance companies to provide efficient and affordable coverage for everyone under strict government regulation.
The Dutch health ministry argues there is no alternative to competing private insurance companies as a means of ensuring better quality care, greater cost consciousness, better affordability and more tailor-made care through greater influence by customers.
(taken from an artical by Rory Leishman)