[BarBu]

Universal Coverage - Health Utopia?

http://abcnews.go.co...th031025-1.html


Once in Crisis, Taiwanese Now Enjoy Health Care for All
Ten years ago, if Taiwanese were old, poor or jobless and got sick, they were in trouble.

"Today, you no longer hear these stories," said Dr. Hong-Jen Chang, who heads Taiwan's national health insurance program.
Implemented only a decade ago, it is already widely praised and envied.

"The average citizen pays 20 U.S. dollars per person, per month," Chang said. "They can go to any doctor, any hospital they want. They pay, on the average, two U.S. dollars [and] a maximum of about 10 U.S. dollars each visit. And we don't have a waiting list."

Health & Welfare in Taiwan
http://ntuh.mc.ntu.e...h/intro/faq.htm

ORIENTED Healthcare in Taiwan
http://www.oriented.org/healthcare/

[BarBu]

mdporter,

The details is not well documented in ABC's report, the state run insurance pay 400 dolars for Lynn Jiang, if he is in good health conditions, the plan use his monthly payemnt to cover others' claim.

Quote

The government set up a single, government-run insurance company, set monthly premiums based upon ability to pay, and set limits on the costs of all treatments and medicine.

Lynn Jiang can now meet with a specialist once a month, get X-rays, blood tests and a month's worth of medicine.

It costs the government about $400, and costs Lynn about $24.

[machinehead]

Taiwan used to be a conservatively-managed government which avoided debt.

After Chiang Ching-kuo ended martial law in 1987 and allowed political opposition (the Democratic Progressive Party) to come out in the open, all that changed.

Both the Kuomintang and the DPP realized that in an electoral democracy, the best way to stay in office is to buy votes with borrowed money.

Taiwan's government runs steady deficits now, with ballooning government debt. That's not even counting the contingent promises made by the health care and pension plans.

Borrow and spend

Taiwan got a later start than most of Asia, but its statist government is now running it into the ground financially. The linked article from abc news is just the standard statist propaganda which extols the benefits of government programs, while failing to disclose their massive back-loaded costs. Deliberate lies from the usual liars.

[threadbare]

Barbu, Of course in state sponsored universal programs, citizens pay for coverage through taxes. The question remains thus--What is worse, govt. inefficiency or corporate greed under a privately funded system? It will be interesting to see how this issue effects the next presidential election.

Healthcare in Canada operates like an HMO, though you can choose your own doctor. Hospital waits are long for elective surgery, and the quality of doctors is not always the highest, due to brain drain to the States. There are all kinds of problems with it. A two tier system, though undesirable ideologically, is a an absolute must to keep costs from rocketing and dragging the country back into debt. The system will collapse if it isn't reworked, with the huge number of baby boomers coming along.

Corporate greed in the private sector and corruption and ineffieciency in govt.Medicare make both delivery systems completely unworkable in the U.S., except for the very wealthy. It probably is a prime motivator for companies moving jobs overseas too.

I've lived under both Canadian and American systems recently and can see the weaknesses in both. My doctors were superior in the U.S. but I couldn't or rather wouldn't afford the 700.00 per month it was costing me and my husband for the cut rate, catastrophe coverage we had with a private insurer.

If you ask most Canadians if they'd trade their system for the American, the anwer would be "Hell, No!" They would like to fix it but not change it altogether.

The amount we pay, though taxes, for coverage here is much less than what we were paying for private insurance in the States. We were looking at our rates doubling to $1400 per month, within a decade as self employed individuals, if we had stayed in the U.S.

Demographics will dictate the outcome of health care in the future. It could just be that nothing works, in this specific situation.

[BarBu]

machinehead, on Oct 29 2003, 12:03 PM, said:

Taiwan used to be a conservatively-managed government which avoided debt.

After Chiang Ching-kuo ended martial law in 1987 and allowed political opposition (the Democratic Progressive Party) to come out in the open, all that changed.

machinehead & threadbare

I stayed in Taiwan for about 30 years, have seen the progressive political change. Due to very special conditions in Taiwan (Pro independence and the threat from China), the democratic movement also produces many side effects.
That state run health insurance/wealfare system in Taiwan provides good experience for the possible change here. I remember Bill Clinton had attempted such change in his first term. Since healthcare become an increasing load for both employee and employer, somehow sometime we have to deal with it. one source system or whatever system, but how to reduce the medical cost and silly legal cost will help. No body want to see Hypertiger's prediction come true unless he/she believe "re-creation" only comes after total destruction.