its not just that. the hospitals themselves inflate costs. ambulance
services, they charge outrageous rates, such as 50 dollars for a 1.50
triangular bandage. why? becuase the INSUREANCE companies are going
to pay for it. they know theyll get their money.
Right, of course. But again the basic problem is lack of free-market competition. Again, there are many hospitals in Japan, so the costs are much more moderate. Also healthcare is way better overall -- people live longer, infant mortality is lower, and getting treatment for a sprain or asthma is much more convenient. You just walk in the door and they treat you. (For that matter, infant mortality is lower in Cuba than the U.S. The U.S. tends to lag in things like primary school education and healthcare.) The downside is that most Japanese hospitals I have been in were like a U.S. cafeteria or highway McDonald's: crowded, filthy, the food is awful, and there is no privacy. Most do not make enough money to build deluxe facilities. But I know people who have had bypass surgery and complicated ectopic pregnancy repaired for a few thousand dollars.
There is national health insurance in Japan, which is partly why individual patients pay little directly for bypass surgery. But the overall bill including the portion the government pays is also low. The percent of the GNP that the nation pays for healthcare is much lower than the US. Still, health care and retirement costs are considered in crisis in Japan, and debates about how to do with them are a regular feature of the seven o'clock news and Sunday Meet the Press type shows.
As far as I can tell from the situation in Japan, national health insurance does not have the deleterious socialistic effects predicted by people who oppose it in the U.S. As I see it, the U.S. system is not only socialistic, it is hard-core communist. I mean for the doctors, not the patients! Competition has been squelched and the results are predictable.
- Jed
