Sick Around The World Summary

In Sick Around the World, T.R Reid partnered up with FRONTLINE to do a documentary on health care systems in various different countries. The countries whose healthcare policies were viewed are the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, and Taiwan. This documentary was done to show what these countries are doing that’s causing them to have success in their healthcare systems and what the United States can do to become more successful with its healthcare system. Each of these countries took different approaches to making healthcare accessible by almost everyone and succeeded. Although there are still kinks and many things could still be better, they all succeeded in making policies that are better than that of the United States. The …show more content…
The hospitals are owned and funded by the government. Hospitals compete for government funding by having good results. The UK has better health statistics, low infant mortality, and longer life expectancy. The UK is also a world leader when it comes to preventative medicine. Germany is the country that invented the concept of a national health care system. Although it is more expensive than Japan’s healthcare system and the UK’s healthcare system, it covers a lot more. Germany offers universal health care, including medical, dental, mental health, homeopathy, and spa treatment. Pregnant women in Germany pay nothing but there is a copay fee for most patients which is only about 15 dollars in US currency every 3 months. This healthcare system caters more to the patient than it does the physician. For Taiwan’s healthcare system, they took a bunch of good ideas from different countries around the world and made their own. They gathered many different experts from many different places to go over things like how to avoid making the same mistakes other countries did. The Taiwanese have smart cards that hold all of their medical information and their bills are paid automatically. However, they are not paying enough to keep their healthcare system …show more content…
Considering the fact that many people come to the US for better work and education opportunities, there should be better medical opportunities as well. The questions I have after viewing this video and reading up on this situation are mainly for the US. I want to gain a better understanding as to why the US can’t get on board with a better healthcare plan. What is stopping this nation from taking care of its people? Why is so much money being spent and so little coverage being put out? What are the risk that come with the US changing its healthcare policy and adopting something similar to the other