Interesting that you name Switzerland as arguably the best...it was on my list also. I lived there for nearly a year, and overall it is a great system. Do you know that Obamacare is modeled after Switzerland's health care system?...or was that the point you were making?
- Switzerland's health care system is a combination of federal and private--the private being highly regulated by the feds
- Switzerland's govt. mandates that everyone has basic insurance--you can pay for additional insurance if you want
- Those that can't afford basic insurance are given a subsidy by the govt.
- Private insurance companies are forbidden from making a profit on the basic insurance, and the prices are regulated by the feds
With some fine tuning of how Obamacare works, including stricter federal regulation of our entire health care system, we'd have exactly what Switzerland has. We're quickly heading in that direction. I'm still not convinced it's the best, but it would be better than what we have.
RugersGR8, which facts are you referring to? If you like Switzerland's health care system, you'd have to be a supporter of Obamacare. Nearly everything that Obamacare does you'll find in Switzerland.
This is the best post in this entire thread. The only other thing worth adding is
(http://www.bag.admin.ch/themen/krankenversicherung/01156/index.html?lang=en)Healthcare costs in Switzerland are 11.4% of GDP (2010), comparable to Germany and France (11.6%) and other European countries, but significantly less than in USA (17.6%).
That's over a full THIRD reduction in cost bu GDP.
What many fail to realize is that the old system still had a subsidy of health care of the poor, but rather it was through the ridiculously high costs those who actually PAID (via cash or insurance coverage) for those who could not pay, medicare and medicaid programs, prescription drugs that some of where were entirely unaffordable (ever priced chemotherapy medication?), and increased level of care for those who could/did not access primary and preventative care as they should.