Dr. Sean Flynn gave a very interesting talk about how we can improve the United States’ healthcare system based off what Singapore uses now. At this point, I think anything other than what we are doing is worth a look. He starts off the talk with how our healthcare system came to be and how employers end up paying for it. I thought that was very interesting simply. In schools, healthcare is not usually a topic that gets taught. I was also surprised how we spend eighteen out of every one hundred dollars on healthcare in the United States which is extremely high compared to most other places. In Canada, England, and China, they spend around ten out of every one hundred dollars on healthcare. I would not want to switch to Canada’s healthcare system because I do not think they get some service in a timely manner and a lot of their citizens end up in the United States to get it done. Singapore has come in the bet at around four out of every one hundred dollars.
Singapore uses mandated savings and a marketplace healthcare system to spend less on healthcare. Basically, if you are a resident of Singapore, part of your wage is directly stuck in a health savings account which the government guarantees so much interest on. They then use that money and ‘shopping around’ to pick a doctor to fulfill what procedure they need done. All the costs are known up front. Instead of $130,000 surgery in the United States which would be paid by insurance, their citizens pay out of pocket and the surgery only costs $18,000. Of course, Singapore still has safety nets, but for the most part they make sure their citizens are looking for best deal.
I think this would be a good practice to implement in the United States. In fact, whole foods and several companies and governmental agencies have switched to it in Indiana. They were able to force their employees to save. Instead, they used a high deductible plan where the deductible was anywhere from 1100 dollars to 2800 dollars. The employees where then given money to cover the deductible. In the end, it ended up saving the employers thirty-five percent of what they were spending before on healthcare. If we were able to save all the money the United States was spending on healthcare and move that to other places such as the national debt, we would be out of debt in no time at all. Overall, I think this could be a better plan than what we have implemented currently.
