In the lecture by Dr. Sean Flynn, he discusses modern healthcare, he makes very interesting points about all the things the United States lacks when it comes to healthcare. His overall argument is that the United States has a lot that they could improve on when comparing the healthcare of our country to others. When he puts it into perspective of the entire world’s healthcare system versus ours, there are many areas where our healthcare system is failing to spend money well for the quality of healthcare United States citizens receive. One of his first points is about how the infant mortality rates are about 3 times higher in the US than in other countries such as Singapore as well as the amount of mothers that die in childbirth which is about 7 times as much in the United States. When comparing our 18 percent of GDP spent on healthcare to Singapore’s 4 percent, it is apparent that we are doing something wrong in our country with the incredible amount of money we spend on healthcare. Another huge problem is something like open heart surgery. In the United States, Dr. Flynn mentioned that an open heart surgery is roughly $130,000 compared to Singapore’s $18,000 while Singapore still has very good and trustworthy surgeries. In my opinion, $130,000 is way too much and most people cannot afford that kind of money for the surgery. Singapore’s alternative pricing is much more reasonable and can even be paid through installment payments over years like a car. I think that this system would be very beneficial to incorporate in the United States. Another point Dr. Flynn discusses how the United States is the only country that uses a third party, insurance, to make payments for our medicare. He says that this takes away any incentive that doctors may have to be nice to the customer and keep them around. Maybe check on them and make sure they are okay. I feel like the customer could walk away and get a similar service somewhere else however some places may not take the customer’s insurance and this is what causes the problem. The next point Dr. Flynn talks about the three M’s that Singapore has to offer. These consist of Medisave, Medishield, and Medifund. Medisave is a savings account for medicare that is around 7 percent of your gross income which goes into this account tax free. Along with this, the money grows tax free and the government guarantees a 4 percent interest. Singapore is the only country that has done this and this is very beneficial for several reasons. It forces the individual to put this money into this Medisave account but over time the money grows and if the person is healthy, not much of it is used allowing them to have much more money for medicare when they are old and retired. In the United States, these medicare savings accounts are not mandatory so many people spend that money and are not able to afford their medicare needs. Later in his discussion, one huge point that he pointed out was the way paying and billing works in medicare in the United States. Dr. Flynn explains how after a doctor completes a service for the customer, they bill the insurance company and they could negotiate the price of how much the service is for weeks or months. During that period, the customer has no idea how much the service is going to cost then all the sudden they are sprung with a bill that they had no idea they would have to pay for the service they received. This whole process of billing through a third party is a huge hassle in my opinion and could definitely be reworked to find a better method to get payments done in medicare. There are many ways that the United States could improve overall healthcare and Singapore is a prime example of what could be improved. The overall quality and system of billing is much better and I feel could be easily implemented into the United States. From the pricing to the billing system and doctors, Dr. Flynn’s argument that the United States healthcare system is nowhere close to where it should be for the money spent proves to be very persuasive. After watching this lecture, I have been convinced that the United States has a lot they could improve on and once again, especially for how much money the United States spends on healthcare.
