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U.S. Health Care Could Be More Like Denmark’s
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/10/20/can-the-us-become-denmark/us-health-care-could-be-more-like-denmarks
The United States isn’t Denmark, but it can, like Scandinavia, implement changes to its health care system that save money, cover everyone and help us live longer. In the 1950s, U.S. health statistics were world class: infant mortality rate among the lowest, life expectancy among the highest, and health costs about average. One by one, other nations — not just Denmark and Sweden, but Australia, Britain, Canada and Taiwan, to name a few — adopted national health programs. By the end of the 20th century, the U.S. was the lone hold out for private, for-profit health insurance, and its health statistics lagged behind dozens of countries. Meanwhile, costs soared to twice the average in other wealthy nations.
In contrast, insurance overhead in single-payer programs (and fee-for-service Medicare) takes only 1 percent to 2 percent. In these programs, hospitals don't need to bill each patient; they're paid a lump sum budget, the way we fund fire departments, sharply cutting hospital administrative costs. Moving to a single-payer system would save about $400 billion annually on paperwork and administration — enough to ensure every American top coverage.
Messages like "We are not Denmark" insist we put blinders on and refuse to learn from others. That reasoning would have us ignore innovations like vaccination or CT scanners (British inventions), echocardiograms (a Swedish one) or cardiac stents (first used in France). A single-payer reform — like the one advocated by the 20,000 members of Physicians for a National Health Program — could save thousands of American lives each year. That's as American as apple pie.
The United States isn’t Denmark, but it can, like Scandinavia, implement changes to its health care system that save money, cover everyone and help us live longer. In the 1950s, U.S. health statistics were world class: infant mortality rate among the lowest, life expectancy among the highest, and health costs about average. One by one, other nations — not just Denmark and Sweden, but Australia, Britain, Canada and Taiwan, to name a few — adopted national health programs. By the end of the 20th century, the U.S. was the lone hold out for private, for-profit health insurance, and its health statistics lagged behind dozens of countries. Meanwhile, costs soared to twice the average in other wealthy nations.
In contrast, insurance overhead in single-payer programs (and fee-for-service Medicare) takes only 1 percent to 2 percent. In these programs, hospitals don't need to bill each patient; they're paid a lump sum budget, the way we fund fire departments, sharply cutting hospital administrative costs. Moving to a single-payer system would save about $400 billion annually on paperwork and administration — enough to ensure every American top coverage.
Messages like "We are not Denmark" insist we put blinders on and refuse to learn from others. That reasoning would have us ignore innovations like vaccination or CT scanners (British inventions), echocardiograms (a Swedish one) or cardiac stents (first used in France). A single-payer reform — like the one advocated by the 20,000 members of Physicians for a National Health Program — could save thousands of American lives each year. That's as American as apple pie.
Comment by Don McCanne of PNHP: We need to be sure that the fundamentals do not get lost in political rhetoric. The fact is that health system performance in the United States has lagged behind many other nations while our costs have soared to twice the average of wealthier nations. Bernie Sanders says that we can learn from Denmark (meaningful rhetoric). Hillary Clinton says that we are not Denmark, but we are the United States of America (dismissive rhetoric). Steffie Woolhandler says that saving lives through single-payer reform would be as American as apple pie (Yankee Doodle Dandy rhetoric).
So how about a little Yankee Doodle Dandy? James Cagney or Mickey Rooney - you choose:
Where else but in America could we choose which Yankee Doodle Dandy we prefer? And we can even choose health care for all if we were willing to give up our uniquely American health care system, as dysfunctional as it is. But that would mean adopting policies of health care justice already in use in other nations. Apple pie anyone?
