Health care is one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the economy. There is an increasing demand for services and goods driven by demographics and the continued innovation of medical technology. With that, healthcare costs in the United States have been steadily growing above the overall rate of inflation. In fact, the nation has been touted as the most expensive healthcare system in comparison to developed countries in the world.
Given that I have been exposed to the healthcare system in America, I am taking this opportunity to explore different healthcare systems across the globe that would parallel to the American approach. I initially looked into France being at the forefront of the best healthcare in the world (Bernstein, 2014) …show more content…
According to the Ministry of Health, they employ a mixed financing approach where they employ structures that are centered on the market forces to encourage competition and transparency of prices with a combination of taking on medical technology to help expand patient health outcomes. What is really noteworthy in their system is their system of savings and insurance programs for individuals and household to pay for their medical expenditures’. The Ministry of Health has exhibited in their website about the tiered structure of how healthcare is financed in the land. In the first tier, subsidies are provided by the government to pay off 80% of the total cost of the bill in public hospitals and primary care polyclinics. Included in the National Health plan is the establishment of Medisave ("Expenditure Budget," 2013). It is the second tier of protection which is an obligatory individual medical savings account scheme to contribute a certain percentage of their earnings, which is matched by the employers so that all Singaporeans has the capacity to disburse their share of medical treatment short of any financial constraints (Mossialos & Wenzl, 2016). Thereafter, the third tier of protection that is coined as Medishield Life that was just recently replaced …show more content…
Government oversees the country’s unique healthcare system. It intervenes the market if it fails to trim down the cost. Moreover, both private and public hospitals operate in conjunction with each other with greater gain in the latter because of the incentives and subsidies at their disposal. A remarkable feature of this approach is that it is able to influence the prices for medical services and treatments in public hospitals coupled with setting the number of public hospitals and beds, the government in command of the marketplace. Thereby, private stakeholders are cautious not to go beyond the ceiling set by the government (Mossialos & Wenzl,
Given that I have been exposed to the healthcare system in America, I am taking this opportunity to explore different healthcare systems across the globe that would parallel to the American approach. I initially looked into France being at the forefront of the best healthcare in the world (Bernstein, 2014) …show more content…
According to the Ministry of Health, they employ a mixed financing approach where they employ structures that are centered on the market forces to encourage competition and transparency of prices with a combination of taking on medical technology to help expand patient health outcomes. What is really noteworthy in their system is their system of savings and insurance programs for individuals and household to pay for their medical expenditures’. The Ministry of Health has exhibited in their website about the tiered structure of how healthcare is financed in the land. In the first tier, subsidies are provided by the government to pay off 80% of the total cost of the bill in public hospitals and primary care polyclinics. Included in the National Health plan is the establishment of Medisave ("Expenditure Budget," 2013). It is the second tier of protection which is an obligatory individual medical savings account scheme to contribute a certain percentage of their earnings, which is matched by the employers so that all Singaporeans has the capacity to disburse their share of medical treatment short of any financial constraints (Mossialos & Wenzl, 2016). Thereafter, the third tier of protection that is coined as Medishield Life that was just recently replaced …show more content…
Government oversees the country’s unique healthcare system. It intervenes the market if it fails to trim down the cost. Moreover, both private and public hospitals operate in conjunction with each other with greater gain in the latter because of the incentives and subsidies at their disposal. A remarkable feature of this approach is that it is able to influence the prices for medical services and treatments in public hospitals coupled with setting the number of public hospitals and beds, the government in command of the marketplace. Thereby, private stakeholders are cautious not to go beyond the ceiling set by the government (Mossialos & Wenzl,