Health Care

United Kingdom:
-Average family funded by taxes
- Young/ Elderly exempt from co-pay
-British system: Socialized medicine
-Government provides & pays for healthcare
-NHS distributes funds (taxes) to health care providers
- GP's paid based on numbers of patients they see/ paid extra for keeping patients healthy, and are instrumental in preventive care
-Administrative costs are low
-Patients must see a General Practitioner before seeing a specialist

Japan:
-Average family spends approx. $280 per month
-Co-pay 30% of the cost of procedure
-total amount paid in a month is caped according to income
- Social Insurance system
-All citizens required to have health insurance either through work or non-profit
-If a citizens cannot afford it they receive public assistance
-Almost all doctors/ hospitals are in a private sector/ private health insurance
-Some of the best health stats in world
-No gatekeepers/ can see any specialist
-So successful at keeping low costs almost spend too little on health care

Germany:
-Average family spends approx. $750 per month
-Co-pay $15 per 3 months, few exempt
- Uses Social Insurance model
- Free to buy insurance from one of 200 private nonprofit sickness funds
- Poor receive public assistance to pay premiums
- Sickness funds : nonprofit, cannot deny coverage, compete with each other for members, paid based on size of enrollment
- Single payment system
- Government does not negotiate prices, sickness funds bargain with doctors
-Citizens can see a specialist but must pay a higher co-pay
-Concerns: Doctors feel underpaid, Make less than in U.S., let the richest citizens opt out of sickness funds

Taiwan:
- Average family spends approx. $650 per year (family of four)
- Co-payments account for 20 % of the cost of drugs, dental, and outpatient care
- Exemptions from co-pay for major diseases, childbirth, poor, veterans, etc.
- Use National Health Insurance model
- All citizens must have insurance
- One government run insurer
- Those working split premiums with employers
- poor / veterans fully subsidized
-New health care system decreased the growth of health care spending
- Citizens can see any doctor w/o a referral
- Lowest administrative costs in world
- Each citizen has smart card with all health information and history stored within it
- Not taking enough money to cover care it provides

Switzerland:
-Average family spends approx. $750
- Social Insurance Model
-95 % of population already had insurance when law for the new model was passed
-All citizens required to have coverage
- Automatically assigned to company
- Government provided assistance to those who couldn't afford premiums
- Universal coverage
- Insurance companies not allowed to make a profit on basic care / can make money on supplemental insurance
- Only drug prices set by government
-Second most expensive system in world- behind the U.S.
- Do not have gate keeper doctors

COST OF HEALTH CARE

United Kingdom- 8.3 percent

Japan- 8 percent

Germany- 10.7 percent

Switzerland- 11.6 percent

United States- 15.3 percent

I think the U.S. should adopt some sort of socialized medicine model because the coverage here is so low.  The united kingdom may pay more in taxes, but for everyone to have equal coverage, it is worth it.  The U.S. has one of the lowest life expectancy rates and pays the most on health insurance.  Honestly if our country was risky enough to adopt any other model than we are following now I think we would be better off than we are doing in the moment.