Switzerland's example of universal healthcare. Will Obamacare be just as expensive?

At least one country already has a healthcare plan very similar to the one that we will adopt in our country in 2014, with universal coverage, a mandate that everyone buy insurance and a major role for private insurance companies: Switzerland.

Will we have as much difficulty in controlling exploding heath care costs as the Swiss have had with their system since 1994?

The answer is "Yes"!

"The unrelenting rise in costs has been the single biggest disappointment in the Swiss universal coverage system, which was created by a landmark reform in 1994. To Meile and others, the basic reason is evident: The well-insured Swiss use a lot of medical care -- too much, in fact. They visit their doctors more frequently than Americans do. They often ask for tests or pharmaceuticals that they've heard about from friends. And nobody wants to tell them no."

When something is free, it is human nature to access it and to use it much more often than when it is not free. In their haste to craft Obamacare and force it without sufficient review onto the American public, the Democrats have failed to take this one simple fact into consideration!

Another important lesson: Cost containment is very, very difficult -- especially if, like "Obama and his Swiss colleagues, you've promised voters that they'll still get all the care they want."

 

Oh those commies ......

As for the cost - yes it will be as expensive as Swiss pay....

 

Socialism is failing across the globe. It may just be the only constant left in the universe, if the speed of light has indeed been superseded.

_

 

I'm shocked I tell ya. Govt healthcare is expensive and always implodes?

Who knew?

 

What? Not working in a country with only 8 million residents? Multiply their failure times 292 million and it'll give us some idea of what we're in store for with Obamacare.

Another liberal unicorn dream evaporates as it runs head on into reality.

 

Yea, nobody wants our healthcare system be as expensive as Switzerland's. I doubt anybody will be able to keep up with such a huge money pit. God, $3500 a year is so expensive and so socialistic .... Hell no, they can keep it, true americans would better pay $7500 and should stop whining !

 

http://www.politicalforum.com/curre...ealth-care-thrives-without-public-option.html

Every doctor would choose to treat a patient before that patient is in crisis..

 

For some reason, the liberals in this country refuse to look at the failures of other countries that have already tried to implement the ideas they are so convinced that we need to implement here. The great European socialism experiment has failed. Why are the liberals so obsessed with recreating that experiment here?

 

The Swiss system is unlike any other in Europe.. What are you talking about?

 

Margot,

Please check this out.

It is very good.

Don't Copy Europe's Mistakes: Less Government Is the Right Way to Fix Healthcare

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZum_o-GAEI&feature=player_embedded"]Don't Copy Europe's Mistakes: Less Government Is the Right Way to Fix Healthcare - YouTube[/ame]

 

The Swiss system is different.. you will also note in the article you posted that the Swiss GP has about 1000 patients.. The average GP in the US has 2500 or more patients.. or active patient files.

 

The population of Switzerland is approx 7,731,167. More people live in NY City.

 

Margot, I believe you are very mistaken when you say “the average GP in the US has 2500 or more patients, or active patient files.” Please provide a reliable source that confirms this very high patient load.

If this is true, the average general practitioner in Switzerland makes about twice as much as his counterpart in the U.S. on a per patient basis!

"The average general practitioner in Switzerland, he said, makes about $150,000 a year, but cardiologists and other specialists can make $300,000 or more."

 

And yet switzerland has less poverty than US.

 

Unlike the US system -- the most expensive in the world and 50 million not even covered.

I hope this is a new meme among the **********s: "Switzerland -- it doesn't work!"

 

No I am NOT wrong. It was my business to know these things. Yes, specialists make in excess of $300K a year. Most GPs and FMs make in the range of $150 a year.. but they have education debt of 300K as opposed to FMGs who have debt of 30k..

 

Cessna's new fact free meme:

"Switzerland: It Isn't Run Well".

 

Your numbers are very much at odds with this reliable source.

The Number of Kaiser Foundation Patients per
Kaiser Permanente Physicians

Members of the Kaiser Permanente Reform Committee have found:

Southern California;

3.1 million members
3600 physicians = 861 members/physician
47300 employees = 66 members/employee
11 medical centers = 281818 members/center

Northern California;

3.2 million members
4694 physicians = 681 members/physician
54300 employees = 59 members/employee
17 medical centers = 188235 members/center

 

That is because its citizens are much better educated that the minority classes in the United States.

The high unemployment numbers in the U.S. are deceptive. Many good jobs are available. However, few people in the U.S. have the necessary skills to qualify for them! Check this out.

 

1) Their costs are 1/2 of ours
2) Most everyone is covered and don't have to worry about going bankrupt
3) I am not a big fan of pvt insurance companies to start with. If you don't have a stake in the costs you don't have any competition to compare to.

Our system is broke. More and more people every year lose health insurance. And that trend will continue. Health care should be preventive and not reactive.
The more uninsured there are the more costs to everyone else in the long run. People will always run to the emergency room as a last resort to dying. Those running to the emergency room and not able to pay, someone will pay. Either the hospitals take a hit on profits or they charge other paying customer more. Which means premiums go up, costs of tests go up and it's 1 step after another of increasing costs. Which can only fuel more people to drop insurance as our economy sputters.

To fix the system, root cause must be determined. That of course throws the 2 sides into a tizzy because root cause can't be agreed upon. But it is in the best interest of all americans to find the top 3-5 biggest cost increases and start to tackle them 1 at a time.

 

This is a good argument for spending lots more on public education, like Switzerland does, and totally refutes conservative austerity schemes.

In any case, there are lots of reasons why some countries are wealthier than others, education being one. Getting health care costs under control is another. We haven't done that. Switzerland has a rational system that more or less does. We have an irrational system that is the most expensive and least efficient in the world.

 

You are very mistaken, Landru Guide Us.

And here is why.

 

The United States ranks #131 in the world. With 12% of the population living below the poverty line.

Countries with Universal Health Care:

#130 Denmark 12.1% of the population living below the poverty line.
#124 UK 14% of the population living below the poverty line.
#119 Belgium 15.2% of the population living below the poverty line.
#118 Germany 15.5% of the population living below the poverty line.
#117 Japan 15.7% of the population living below the poverty line.
#101 Spain 19.8% of the population living below the poverty line.
#99 Greece 20% of the population living below the poverty line.
#81 Brazil 26% of the population living below the poverty line.
#46 Venezuela 37.9% of the population living below the poverty line.

Source: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_pop_bel_pov_lin-economy-population-below-poverty-line

There appears to me to be a direct correlation between Universal Health Care and poverty.

 

Same old conservative claptrap. CEOs need more money, but schools don't.

Save for a Tea Party convention.

Psssst: by the way, having the best education system in the world costs money. Lots of money. There is no free lunch, despite conservative delusions in that regard.

 

This OP is made as if the USA has NOT had EXPLODING COSTS and LOSSES IN COVERAGE in the last 15 years in our non-socialistic system.

I wonder what planet Conservatives live on to have these strange fantasies?