Before viewing the Frontline films “Sick in America” and “Sick Around the World” I have to say I was rather skeptical of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As a person who has always had insurance available to me this was not an area I have a vast knowledge of other than second hand stories of insurance claims and companies gone awry. However, the videos brought home the reality that America’s system was failing most of its people. I found it intriguing that the host commented on several occasions in “Sick Around the World” that a particular countries (United Kingdom and Japan) system was “probably not to Americans taste” or “probably too close to socialist for Americans”. After seeing the films it is clear that the ACA was much more complicated than it first appears. All of our insurance companies are private and for profit, in most other countries around the world they are not. Some even believe that the ACA simply has not gone far enough and will be revamped to be closer to the healthcare models from countries like Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom (The Washington Post).
Although I acknowledge that change certainly needed to come in our healthcare system and was long overdue, there are clearly some drawbacks to the systems shown around the world. Taiwan is borrowing from banks to pay healthcare providers, doctors in Germany are protesting for higher wages and wait times to see doctors in the United Kingdom can be weeks or months. This is not to say that these are bad systems, but it would be prudent to learn from them and attempt to build on them than to copy them directly. The problem of insurance coverage strikes me as rather similar to that of poverty in that their is not one clear answer that will fix it and make all parties happy and able to function long term.
When I saw the piece about “probably not to Americans taste” in the film, it was one of those eye-rolling moments. With the state of our healthcare system, were in no place to criticize anybody else. It creates a sort of illusion to other countries that the American healthcare system is something to aspire to, until you take a closer look. It may be less of a complicated thing and more of a American pride issue that has been cultivated by ethnocentrism.
Meagan,
You definitley put things in another perspective for me. Here I am thinking that we can easily just replicate what other countries are doing and not re-create the wheel. I never thought to pay more attention to the problems the other countries were having with there insurance companies borrowing money from banks and doctors protesting for higher wadges. It seems as if no matter what someone is going to be unhappy. Finding a solution that meets everyone needs is going to take some trials and errors, but it will be easy once eveyone is willing to compromise and give in a little in order to have a bigger reward.
This is a good post. The challenge I would make is if you approach our health care crisis and trying to fix the problem of insurance coverage I think you are probably correct. If you approach our health care crisis and trying to achieve the goal of available, affordable health care for everyone you would take a slightly different approach. It is complicated, you are correct, and the solutions are slippery at best.