U.S. Health Care Could Be More Like Denmarkâs
By Steffie Woolhandler
Room for Debate, The New York Times, October 20, 2015
In last weekâs Democratic debate, when Bernie Sanders cited Denmark as a role model for the United States to follow, Hillary Clinton was quick to point out that âwe are not Denmark.â
The United States isnât Denmark, but it can, like Scandinavia, implement changes to its health care system that save money, cover everyone and help us live longer.
In the 1950s, U.S. health statistics were world class: infant mortality rate among the lowest, life expectancy among the highest, and health costs about average. One by one, other nations â not just Denmark and Sweden, but Australia, Britain, Canada and Taiwan, to name a few â adopted national health programs. By the end of the 20th century, the U.S. was the lone hold out for private, for-profit health insurance, and its health statistics lagged behind dozens of countries. Meanwhile, costs soared to twice the average in other wealthy nations.
For Americans, national health insurance would mean comprehensive coverage, a free choice from a smorgasbord of any doctor or hospital and lower costs. Other countries have seen huge savings by evicting private insurers and the reams of expensive paperwork they inflict on doctors and hospitals. Aetna keeps 19 cents of every premium dollar for overhead and profit, leaving only 81 cents for care. And U.S. hospitals devote 25.3 percent of total revenue to administration, reflecting the high cost of collecting patient copayments and deductibles, and fighting with insurers.
Obamacare will direct an additional $850 billion in public funds to private insurers, and boost insurance overhead by $273.6 billion. Yet it will leave 26 million uninsured and similar numbers with such skimpy coverage that a major illness would bankrupt them. Most Americans have coverage that limits their choice of doctors and hospitals, and inflicts steep financial penalties when they stray “out-of-network” by accident or necessity.
In contrast, insurance overhead in single-payer programs (and fee-for-service Medicare) takes only 1 percent to 2 percent. In these programs, hospitals don’t need to bill each patient; they’re paid a lump sum budget, the way we fund fire departments, sharply cutting hospital administrative costs. Moving to a single-payer system would save about $400 billion annually on paperwork and administration â enough to ensure every American top coverage.
Messages like “We are not Denmark” insist we put blinders on and refuse to learn from others. That reasoning would have us ignore innovations like vaccination or CT scanners (British inventions), echocardiograms (a Swedish one) or cardiac stents (first used in France). A single-payer reform â like the one advocated by the 20,000 members of Physicians for a National Health Program â could save thousands of American lives each year. That’s as American as apple pie.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/10/20/can-the-us-become-denmark/us-health-care-could-be-more-like-denmarks
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Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
We need to be sure that the fundamentals do not get lost in political rhetoric. The fact is that health system performance in the United States has lagged behind many other nations while our costs have soared to twice the average of wealthier nations. Bernie Sanders says that we can learn from Denmark (meaningful rhetoric). Hillary Clinton says that we are not Denmark, but we are the United States of America (dismissive rhetoric). Steffie Woolhandler says that saving lives through single-payer reform would be as American as apple pie (Yankee Doodle Dandy rhetoric).
So how about a little Yankee Doodle Dandy? James Cagney or Mickey Rooney – you choose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StDpLge_ITM
Where else but in America could we choose which Yankee Doodle Dandy we prefer? And we can even choose health care for all if we were willing to give up our uniquely American health care system, as dysfunctional as it is. But that would mean adopting policies of health care justice already in use in other nations. Apple pie anyone?
PNHP does not take any position on candidates or political parties. Rather we support the policy of health care justice for all through single payer reform.