The United Kingdom has a government-run system, while Canada has a single-payer system, both much decried by American conservatives. But France, Switzerland and the Netherlands are quite different. The French have “a mostly private physician run system with comprehensive, basic government-run health insurance for all their citizens. Private supplemental insurance also can be bought, and most people get it from their employers,” writes Carroll.

 

Switzerland’s system is completely private, has higher out-of-pocket costs than the U.S., but provides for universal coverage through not-for-profit plans that insurance companies are required to maintain.

 

As for the Dutch, they “have a very regulated, entirely private, often for-profit insurance system” using private hospitals and doctors. Health insurance is mandatory—but it is the same price regardless of health or age.

 

Outside of Europe, Singapore relies on “a complex scheme of mandatory medical savings accounts with compulsory savings based on income” that includes catastrophic insurance the government provides.

 

“Know what all these systems have in common, though?” asks Carroll. “Serious, huge government regulation. Know what else they all have in common? They are all cheaper than our system. They all have comparable or better outcomes than our system. And they all manage to achieve universal coverage. All of them.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Other Health Care Systems Are Not All the Same (by Aaron Carroll, Huffington Post)