What do other countries do? - Kansas City Star

What do other countries do? - Kansas City Star:

"In Britain, famously, they wait.

"To replace a hip, for instance, means months before surgery.

"Spaniards and Italians have single-payer health care systems, but they leave it to the cities and villages, not the capitals, to run things. The Greeks demand all medical bills be covered by universal insurance, but let doctors hit up patients for more.

"The Swiss are required to buy health insurance, and virtually all do.
Health care systems around the world vary like cuisine, reflecting customs and history. Some ingredients travel better than others."

Bravo to writer Scott Canon of the KC Star for doing a piece on international health care systems.

I quibble with some of it, particularly the first line, and wrote Canon about it:

Thanks, Mr. Canon for your piece "A Universal Pain", which appeared in my Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today. This kind of reporting is in very short supply and should be front and center in our ongoing discussions on health care, not relegated to the disparaging remarks hurled at Canada by conservatives.

But, I am curious about where you got some of your information. Some seems more up to date than mine, and some less so.

The most glaring one is in the first paragraph regarding waiting times in the UK. Here is more recent news:
http://cmhmd.blogspot.com/2009/05/exclusive-nhs-hospital-waiting-times.html


Further, there are countries with universal health care unlike us, but without significant waiting times, and with better quality outcomes than our own (and I know you praised Germany's system, which is my favorite model):
http://cmhmd.blogspot.com/2009/05/oecd-waiting-times-study-executive.html

A final point, although health care is pushing budgets to the brink internationally, it is very important to remind the public that increasing expenditure from 8 or 9 or 10% of GDP by one or two percent, compared to our 17 or 18 or 19% in our system is a big difference.

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