{"id":5638,"date":"2009-08-18T15:09:42","date_gmt":"2009-08-18T15:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/08\/obamacare-big-options.html"},"modified":"2009-08-18T15:09:42","modified_gmt":"2009-08-18T15:09:42","slug":"obamacare-big-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/08\/obamacare-big-options.html","title":{"rendered":"Obamacare: Big Options"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ObamaGrav.jpg\"<\/span><\/a>This from this morning’s NY Times<\/i> by Paul Krugman<\/a>. Are these the big options for Obamacare?<\/p>\n

\n

Let’s talk about health care around the advanced world.<\/i><\/p>\n

Every wealthy country other than the United States guarantees
\nessential care to all its citizens. There are, however, wide variations
\nin the specifics, with three main approaches taken. <\/i><\/p>\n

In Britain, the government itself runs the hospitals and employs the
\ndoctors. We’ve all heard scare stories about how that works in
\npractice; these stories are false. Like every system, the National
\nHealth Service has problems, but over all it appears to provide quite
\ngood care while spending only about 40 percent as much per person as we
\ndo. By the way, our own Veterans Health Administration, which is run
\nsomewhat like the British health service, also manages to combine
\nquality care with low costs.<\/i><\/p>\n

The second<\/b> route to universal coverage leaves the actual delivery of
\nhealth care in private hands, but the government pays most of the
\nbills. That’s how Canada and, in a more complex fashion, France do it.
\nIt’s also a system familiar to most Americans, since even those of us
\nnot yet on Medicare have parents and relatives who are.<\/i><\/p>\n

Again, you hear a lot of horror stories about such systems, most of
\nthem false. French health care is excellent. Canadians with chronic
\nconditions are more satisfied with their system than their U.S.
\ncounterparts. And Medicare is highly popular, as evidenced by the
\ntendency of town-hall protesters to demand that the government keep its
\nhands off the program.<\/i><\/p>\n

Finally, the third<\/b> route to universal coverage relies on private
\ninsurance companies, using a combination of regulation and subsidies to
\nensure that everyone is covered. Switzerland offers the clearest
\nexample: everyone is required to buy insurance, insurers can’t
\ndiscriminate based on medical history or pre-existing conditions, and
\nlower-income citizens get government help in paying for their policies.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

In this country, the Massachusetts health reform more or less
\nfollows the Swiss model; costs are running higher than expected, but
\nthe reform has greatly reduced the number of uninsured. <\/b>And the most
\ncommon form of health insurance in America, employment-based coverage,
\nactually has some “Swiss” aspects: to avoid making benefits taxable,
\nemployers have to follow rules that effectively rule out discrimination
\nbased on medical history and subsidize care for lower-wage workers.<\/i><\/p>\n

So where does Obamacare fit into all this? Basically, it’s a plan to
\nSwissify America, using regulation and subsidies to ensure universal
\ncoverage.<\/b><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This from this morning’s NY Times by Paul Krugman. Are these the big options for Obamacare? Let’s talk about health care around the advanced world. Every wealthy country other than the United States guarantees essential care to all its citizens. There are, however, wide variations in the specifics, with three main approaches taken. In Britain,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-issues"],"yoast_head":"\nObamacare: Big Options - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/08\/obamacare-big-options.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obamacare: Big Options - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This from this morning’s NY Times by Paul Krugman. Are these the big options for Obamacare? 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