In 2008 , the Harvard School of Public Health and Harris Interactive conduct a survey that asked U.S. citizen whether their state had the best wellness care system in the world . Overall , 45 percent of the respondents believed that the U.S. did in fact have the dear system , but when the upshot were broken down by political party tie-up , the differences were stark . Sixty - eight percentage of Republicans lay claim U.S. superiority , compare to only 32 percent of Democrats . More than half of Democrats – 52 percent – believed that other area had unspoilt health maintenance systems , a belief shared by only 19 percent of Republicans ( the remainder of participant claim not to know ) . player from both political party admitted that the U.S. was particularly weak in factors like making sure everyone had affordablehealth careand controlling wellness care costs [ beginning : Harvard School of Public Health ] .
In the disputatious debate about health care reform , the U.S. scheme is often compared to other systems around the world . Some are concerned that the U.S. spends twice as much per person , while others are uncoerced to pay that price to have choice of provider and shorter wait times . Myths aboundabout what health care is in reality like in other countries , so permit ’s go around the public and see for ourselves .
10: France
In 2000 , theWorld Health Organization(WHO ) ranked France first in its survey of health care systems . French citizen have cosmopolitan wellness insurance coverage that ’s provided by the government . Funds come from required contributions from citizens based onincome . In comeback , the country reimburses about 70 percent of most medical note [ source : Shapiro ] . The Gallic people are allowed to see any health provider they pick out , and about 42 percent can get a same - day appointment [ source : Cohn ] .
To cover the balance , most citizens have supplemental insurance with either a populace or a private programme . This auxiliary plan might be put up by an employer , as most U.S. wellness policy is . Because those that can afford a private architectural plan often take it , supplementary insurance policy is something of a tiered organization divided by stratum [ source : Harrell ] .
One literary criticism of France ’s organisation is the high rate of government outlay ; the program is frequently over budget . The French authorities spends about $ 3,300 per someone on health tending ( the U.S. pass doubly that amount ) [ source : Shapiro ] . However , as the WHO ranking demonstrates , the French welcome a tremendous amount of care for that money . In one study of 19 industrialized nations , France had the low charge per unit ofdeathsthat could have been preclude with adequate basic health maintenance ( the United States had the highest ) [ source : Harrell ] . France is also renowned for treating the very sick ; if you have a serious term likecancer , all your monetary value are covered by the government , even expensive and experimental drugs or surgeries . But the French also empathize that undecomposed attention part early . mould moms receive lengthy pay pregnancy leaves , and new moms with low income are provided financial incentives to attend to prenatal and former puerility appointments .
9: Germany
All citizens must have health insurance in Germany , which they purchase from private , nonprofitfunds . There are about 200 of these plans , none of which is tolerate to deny coverage for apre - existing condition[source : Reid ] . To finance this system , Germans pay 8 pct of their salary into a sickness investment trust ; employers match it [ seed : Knox ] . Those who ca n’t afford the plans are eligible for public assistance , and children are cover by taxpayer funds . The wealthiest 10 per centum of citizens are allowed to prefer out of the arrangement and apply a for - profit plan , though the non - profit plans supply very generous benefits , such as time at a spa .
Germany has introduced a serial of disease management programs that have proven quite successful . The nation found that when affected role receive more guidance from their doctor as well as regular phone calls from nurses , the rates of hospital admissions and dying related to conditions like heart disease anddiabeteswere considerably bring down [ source : Harrell ] .
However , some German doctors palpate they ’re underpaid in this system of rules [ source : Neel ] . Rather than appoint per mental testing rank or engagement made , as many U.S. medico do , German doctors receive a quarterly budget that ’s determined by how many patients they see [ source Neel ] . Still , doctors are very approachable , and citizens report short waits for tests or surgery .
8: Britain
Thanks to the current health tutelage reform public debate , most Americans know Britain as the abode ofsocializedmedicine , thoroughgoing with ration wellness guardianship – in other words , two thing that many Americans fear . Both counts are true . Britain hassocialized medicine , which means that in plus to paying for all citizens to have insurance , the government also employ and pays the doctor and runs the hospital . British citizen pay taxis , which the National Health Service ( NHS ) apportion to provider . When a citizen shows up for an appointment , all service that he or she receive are paid for , with the exclusion ofprescription drug .
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence ( NICE ) is an administrative establishment charge with pass judgment what handling the NHS will pay for . The organization does this with a middling exact formula that takes into account how much the treatment will ameliorate a person ’s sprightliness , how long the affected role can expect to glean the propose benefits and the toll of the treatment per twelvemonth . To put it simply , if this rule yields a price of more than $ 45,000 per year , then NICE wo n’t approve it ; this $ 45,000 door had been antecedently established by study done by the British Department of Transport [ rootage : Harrell ] . A class of life is deemed valuable for all – a 12 - twelvemonth - old with his entire life ahead of him wo n’t be judged any differently than a 90 - year - quondam woman .
Some of NICE ’s decisions have bear witness controversial , particularly in term of Crab treatment , which can be quite expensive . Britain does fall back behind the U.S. in rates of Crab - interrelate death .
7: Canada
In a 2008 sight , Canadians name universal health care as one of the 10 most defining factors of Canada [ source : Austen ] . Such definition may be a bit of a mixed suitcase , if you consider some of the shivery commercials presently ladder in the U.S. that hint that wellness upkeep reform will release us into Canada . What would such a matter mean ?
All Canadian citizens have health concern that is fund byincome taxesand sales tax . The internal regime has oversight for members of the military and native people on reserve , but the 10 provincial and three territorial governments take charge of the rest . The doctors and hospital are secret entities , which distinguishes the Canadian system from the British socialised medicine organization , in which medico are employees of the government . Canadian health aid provider bill the government , so that citizens never see a bill or furcate over a copayment for anything other than dentistry , optometry andprescription drug . While health care cost are rising in Canada , the country presently spends less than the United States [ source : Arnquist ] .
The most common criticism of the Canadian system of rules is long wait times . In the nineties , Canada spent billion of buck to improve these statistic , which are post online . Wait times are longest for elective procedures such as a genu permutation [ reservoir : Bash , Jensen ] . Some Canadians claim that the office is n’t as horrific as it may sound on a commercial ; while sure mass may have had extremely bad post , it ’s not representative of the state [ sources : Bash , Jensen ; Varney ] . Other doctors , fed up with having to hold off for the limited medical equipment to become available , have started rogue private enterprises to plow patients who can pay more apace , even though such natural process are illegal in Canada [ source : Krauss ] .
6: Switzerland
In the U.S. , both Republicans and Democrats can find something to wish about Switzerland ’s wellness tending organisation . Democrats may like that the Swiss have had universal reporting since 1994 , though 95 per centum of citizens already had it before the official identification . Republicans may wish that this universal insurance coverage is n’t provide by the governing , but rather by private insurance . unluckily , neither party may like the cost : Switzerland has the second most expensive system of health forethought in the world after the United States [ source : PBS ] .
Unlike in the U.S. , insurance in Switzerland is n’t marry to one ’s exercise . Rather , all citizen choose from a choice ofprivate plans ; those who ca n’t afford to corrupt one may receive subsidies from the government . Everyone ’s premium for one of these private plans is the same . Another crucial difference from the U.S. is that private insurance companies in Switzerland are n’t allow to make a net on basic health care , basic wellness care being a rather comprehensive set of services . The company are permit to operate at a net for providing service of process such as dental care , substitute medical specialty or the guarantee of a individual infirmary elbow room [ reference : Rovner ] .
5: Taiwan
In 1995 , Taiwan adopted a individual - payer scheme of national health insurance , in which the government pay for all its citizen ' insurance coverage . In doing so , the country attain something that might seem impossible : Taiwan expand reportage to cover 40 percent of the population while importantly cut rising health precaution costs [ source : PBS ] .
Much of the credit for this phenomenon is due to Taiwan’ssmart card . All citizens have a impertinent card encode with their entire aesculapian history . Present it to any doctor , and he or she will have intercourse every wellness concern you ’ve had since you were born . Using these cards also cuts down on administrative paperwork , as medical providers can use it to bill the government instantly for their military service . It ’s deserving noting that in many nation , people are n’t unforced to turn over so much info over to their political science .
Workers and their employers make up for this system , while those who ca n’t give the costs and veteran are provided subsidies . In return , Taiwanese are allowed to see any doctor or medical specialist they so choose on a programme that includes everything from traditional medicine to sight benefits [ reservoir : Reid ] . Costs may be prevent a slight too low , though . Thanks to low administrative cost , Taiwan ’s system currently does not take in enough money to fund itself , and politicians are none too eager to increase premium for reverence of voter reprisals [ beginning : Reid;PBS ] .
4: China
For many days , China had a middling successful cooperative medical system . When that system was pull down , cost rose dramatically and no one paid them . As a result , 100 million the great unwashed lost their insurance coverage [ source : Lowrey ] . The monetary value of go to the hospital was often enough to put people paying out of pocket intobankruptcy . Particularly stern was the difference between health tutelage in rural and urban areas . The rural granger were more at risk for conditions such asavian flubut lacked the resource of the urban professionals to ante up . clinic outside of major cities fell into disarray , and even a plan to have farmers pay the combining weight of $ 1 for a yr of aesculapian care flunk , with the Formosan complaining that such a fee was too expensive [ informant : French ] .
Now , China is in the midst of a major wellness care reform initiative get at these problems . While reform will continue until 2020 , there are some immediate goals . The government activity is paying $ 124 billion ( 850 billion yuan ) to guarantee that 90 percent of the universe has wellness insurance by 2011 [ generator : The Economist ] . The country will also establish 700,000 young clinics [ author : Lowrey ] . According to the Economist , one major vault on the road to reform will be who in the end foots that $ 124 billion bill . Right now , only 40 percentage of the funds are slate to get from the central government , and provincial politics may be unwilling to pay off the ease [ rootage : The Economist ] .
3: Cuba
In his 2007 documentary " Sicko , " movie maker Michael Moore took American citizens to Cuba to make a rather dramatic point about the quality of care anyone could receive there . As with most thing involving Cuba or Michael Moore , this move was not without controversy . While all citizens – and all visitors – are entitled to free aesculapian handling in Cuba , some critic say that the character of forethought differs dramatically for a typical Cuban and an American , particularly one who has a camera gang in towage [ root : DePalma , Scott ] . It ’s also possible that Cuba ’s supporting statistic are a bit fake . For example , while Cuba touts a low infant death rate rate , doctors within the land say they ’re encouraged to perform miscarriage if something is improper with the fetus in the womb [ beginning : Scott ] . It ’s also possible that doctors may not consider babe who exist for a very short time as animated at all [ informant : Scott ] .
Because Cuba ’s wellness organization prevents disease , the country does n’t have to shell out the enceinte bucks to address it . Cuba spends only $ 260 per individual on health care each twelvemonth ; the United States spends more than $ 6,000 [ source : Carroll ] .
2: Brazil
In the early 1980s , the people of Brazil necessitate change . Previous military regimes had left behind health fear systems that served the wealthy person while ignoring the have - nots . When the nation establish a new constitution in 1988 , general wellness care was one of its core tenets .
In Brazil , there is a world and a individual option for health coverage . The public option is the government - funded Sistema Unico de Saude ( Unified Health System , or SUS ) . SUS receives support from multiple tax sources , including taxes on income , propertyandbankingtransactions . These multiple taxes have been unable to keep up with the rising cost of wellness care , though , which could smash SUS in just a few years [ source : Gomez ] . Because SUS was an important part of the constitution , it likely wo n’t be shuttered even if it verges on collapse . Already , the system is troubled : subversion is widespread , and the land lacks basic substructure and personnel to provide health care to all .
As a result , more people are using secret insurance . The individual market is regulate one by one from SUS . Though Brazil attempted to create universal health coverage in 1988 , it still has a system that is divided by class [ generator : Alves , Timmins ] .
1: Russia
In a 2009 article in " Foreign Policy , " Russia was identify as having one of the four worst health care systems in the public ( the United States also made the list ) [ source : Lowrey ] . In the World Health Organization ’s resume of health maintenance systems , Russia ranked 130 out of 191 , putting it on par with commonwealth that are far less industrialized or develop [ source : Danilova ] . How can such a flush country go so wrong ?
When Russia raze its Soviet socialized system , it tried to create a public / private combination system . Theoretically , 90 percent of Russian citizens have health insurance through the governance , but the system is underfunded , even after a $ 3.2 billion reform project in 2006 [ source : Danilova ] . To compensate for the shortage of monetary fund , doctors and hospital have been recognize to necessitate " donations " for care , a system that essentially amounts to blackmail and extortion [ sources : Lowery , Rodriguez ] . Wealthier citizen usually opt for individual coverage .
The World Health Organization recommend that land portion a minimum of 5 per centum of their total disbursement to wellness care ; Russia spends 3.4 percent [ source : Lowrey ] .
