While watching the film “Sick around the World,” I learned that one of the first statements made on the video was extremely true. The statement made was, “other countries do much better than the U.S but spend a lot less money.” There were numerous innovations that impressed me from several different countries. The countries with innovations that stuck out the most were Germany, Japan, and Taiwan.
Germany has a market based health system. They have universal health care that covers medical, dental, mental health and even homeopathy. Insurance companies cannot make a profit from insured customers. Therefore, the price for insurance is negotiated between the government and the Insurance provider. Like any other healthcare system there are good and bad parts to Germany’s system. Everyone is covered; the rich has an option to get private insurance. Germans pay premiums to cover insurance called “ICU funds” The over all German health system is one in which the rich pay for the poor. They have the same quality of health care but the co-pay is smaller than the U.S. They also have sickness funds, in which they negotiate with drug companies and medical doctors. The sickness funds cause for much cheaper medicine than in America. The negative side to the German healthcare system is that hospitals and doctors feel very much underpaid.
Japans healthcare system includes universal coverage. One thing that caught my attention about this health system is that there are no primary physicians. I like that because sometimes when a person is having a specific problem, it is best to see that particular specialist. Nevertheless, there are probably some people that abuse this and will go to see a specialist over a simple cold. In Japan, everyone pays insurance and the government pays for people that are too poor. Medical services are much cheaper than they are in the U.S. They also