Question

According to the author, what three kinds of information can be learned from international comparisons of health care systems and What sorts of questions might arise about health care politics being common or different among countries? (500 words) In your own words No plagiarizm

Answer 1

Health systems in all wealthier countries face similar problems, but their solutions are widely different. That should mean we can learn from other countries.3 kinds of information we can learn which are mentioned as below

1) American political scientist Ted Marmor points out, there is an extraordinary imbalance between the magnitude and speed of the information flows about what is happening in other countries and the capacity to learn useful lessons from them.

The reasons for this imbalance include culture, the “not invented here” syndrome, and the fact that the preconditions that allowed policy change in one place might not apply elsewhere.

Australia starts from a good place

From the Australian perspective, we have to be careful what we pick and choose. As my introduction to this series shows, Australia’s health system stacks up well in international comparisons, at least on measures of cost and life expectancy.

Life expectancy and health expenditure of selected countries, latest year (2011-2013) Grattan Institute/OECD

Not one comparable country performs better than Australia on the critical dimension of cost. Only one, Switzerland, is better on life expectancy but it is much worse on cost.

Overseas experiences can tell you a lot about what not to do, as Lesley Russell argues in her piece on the United States. Yet even the US, the poorest performing health system among advanced economies, can offer lessons.

Second, we can also learn what not to do from other countries. Again, the US, with its heavy reliance on the inflationary administrative cost overlay from private insurance, provides a good example.

Third, while Australia’s health system is good, it’s not perfect. There is currently a huge debate about co-payments in Australia, perhaps we can learn from the Nordic experience about regulated fees and out-of-pocket costs.

Recognition of other ways of doing things opens our eyes to the potential of experimentation and innovation, characteristics that will be important over the next decade as we face challenges from the increased prevalence of chronic disease.

Now many questions might arise about health care politics.

Wherever our healthcare system is headed in the future, we should ask ourselves some important questions along the way. We are each a patient or potential patient, voter or common pepole . We have a role in deciding what our healthcare system will look like in a year or ten years, but we also have a responsibility to figure out what we're willing to do to get there.

Below you'll find questions to consider as you figure out  

1. Do we have a moral obligation to provide healthcare to everyone as needed or is healthcare a commodity that should be subject to the same marketplace influences as other commodities?

2. What should the government's role be in providing access to healthcare ?

3. According to a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association, nearly 40 percent of physicians have manipulated insurance reimbursement receive needed care. For example, physicians have exaggerated patients' symptoms to allow them to stay in the hospital longer, and changed patients' diagnoses for billing purposes. In our current healthcare system, is this justifiable or unethical?

4. Do insurance companies and HMOs use unfair practices to control spending?

5. Should employers be required by law to offer health insurance to employees?

6. Should employees be required by law to participate in employers’ health insurance?

7. Should everyone be required to have health insurance, much as drivers are required to have auto insurance?

8. Our system of health insurance is linked to employment. Coverage is usually provided by the employer, with some contribution from the employee. We now have many people working part-time, or freelance, or working through other non-traditional arrangements.

Should health insurance continue to be linked to employers (our “employer-based system”) or is there another preferred approach?

9. Who should decide when a healthcare service is medically necessary: the doctor who is treating the patient or the insurance plan who is paying the bill?

There can be number of questions few I have raised for you . Hope, this will help you for the clarity of concept ?