Comparative Analysis of Health Insurance Systems: Global Perspectives

This report provides a comparative analysis of health insurance systems, focusing on the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, and Switzerland. The first part of the report examines the deficiencies of the employer-based private health insurance system in the United States, highlighting issues such as lack of coverage for all employees, high costs, and pre-existing condition exclusions. It also offers potential remedies, including generalized schemes, premium subsidies, and stricter pre-procedure protocols. The second part of the report details the health care systems of the other countries, including the government-run National Health Service in the UK, Japan's social insurance, Germany's Bismarck Model, Taiwan's government-aid system, and Switzerland's mandatory insurance. Each system's advantages, disadvantages, and unique features are discussed, providing a comprehensive overview of global health insurance models.

Running head: HEALTH INSURANCE
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Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Table of Contents
Part 1:.........................................................................................................................................2
Deficiency:.............................................................................................................................2
Remedy:.................................................................................................................................3
Part 2:.........................................................................................................................................4
The United Kingdom:............................................................................................................4
Japan:......................................................................................................................................4
Germany:................................................................................................................................4
Taiwan:...................................................................................................................................5
Switzerland:............................................................................................................................6

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Part 1:
Deficiency:
The “sick around the world” video talks about the current scenario of the health care
system of the United States of America. The video is a well-investigated piece of research,
showing the broken health care system of the country concerning the federal government’s
new movement to reform the system (PBS.org, 2020).
The deficiency of the employer-based private health insurance that not all the
company provides the insurance plan to their employees. Mark William, an employee of
Microsoft, get paid the considerable hospital costs by the company. However, not all
company are generous to pay a huge amount of bill like Microsoft. The employer-paid health
care cost can-not be relied upon more, concerning the rising cost of medical care cost. The
Kaiser family foundation provides its employees with two type of plans, HMO and PPO,
changed their insurance plan due to facing the problem of increasing premium(PBS.org,
2020).
The COBRA law ensures the employee get the health benefits eighteen months after
the retirement. However, the COBRA scheme is very expensive, especially for people who
do not have any job. Paul Stephens, an ex-manager, sold his house and went bankrupt to pay
the medicals bill, as he was unable to afford the COBRA premium money(PBS.org, 2020).
Private insurance is an alternative option for unemployed or self-employed people but
comes with lots of conditions. The private insurances are strategies to cover only the healthy
people, leaving the people with pre-existing illness (PBS.org, 2020).
The employment aid insurance plan is sometimes forcing the people in taking all the
vital decision like leaving study, taking up jobs, retiring, retaining in a job or marrying. Matt
Johnson, a final semester student, diagnosed with severe ulcerative condition forced to take

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up a job, sacrificing his dream to get insured by an employee-based health insurance. Matt
was a fulltime student, and his parents' health care plan covers his medical costs. However,
the plan excludes him as soon as he graduated. There is no way out for him other than taking
up a job, with medical benefits to pay off the medical costs of expensive drugs and visits of
the physicians (PBS.org, 2020).
The private insurance companies sometimes deny paying for the medical costs
claiming that people misrepresent their health conditions before applying for the insurance
plan. The case of Jennifer Thompson represents the scenario. Jennifer gets insured by Blue-
cross by filling up all the legal documents. However, the company rescinded all the facilities
claiming that she failed to disclose the condition of bleeding before shifting to Blue-
cross(PBS.org, 2020).
Remedy:
A generalized scheme for the employer must be implemented to cover all employees
health insurance.
To make the COBRA law available for everyone, the premium of the insurance
should be checked. Especially for people with a lower economic background should be
subsidized.
To ensure that the people do not take any massive decision about their life, the
coverage of the government aid health insurance should be available for every citizen of the
country, with low premium plans(PBS.org, 2020).
The pre-procedure of getting insurance should be strict to reduce fraud-related denial
of insurance companies.
The remedy to solve the overall problem is to change the structure of the health
policy. A state-based policy is trialled in Massachusetts shows the potential improvement
needed to build a better arrangement of the health care system. The plan needs to subsidize a

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broad range of family with low income. The range of income to subsidized must be stretched.
(PBS.org, 2020).
Part 2:
The United Kingdom:
The health care system of the united kingdom is a government-run National Health
Service. The insurance covers every citizen of the country. The British government bears the
medical cost.
The medical cost the citizens bared as the tax revenue, and the government provides
all the medical facilities.
The disadvantage of the National Health Service is the long waiting time for elective
care like- critical surgeries. Sometimes one waits for 18 months for their hip replacement
operation (PBS.org, 2020).
Japan:
Japanese health insurance is called social insurance.
The provider of health insurance is both the government and private or community-
based insurance plans. The government bears the medical cost of the poor people. The
insurance covers all the citizens. The government design a tight budget and universal cost of
medical facilities all over the country, to keep the medical cost checked.
One drawback of the system is the facing financial problems to cover up the medical
cost of the patients(PBS.org, 2020).

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Germany:
The health care model of the country is called the Bismarck Model. The country has
both the private insurance as well as the government aid plan. The wealthy population often
rely mostly on private insurance, while 90% of the population use the government aid plan.
The government aid plan covers basic medical plans, advance medical cost, dental,
optical care cost, as well as alternate therapy like homoeopathy.
The Germans bare the medical cost as the premium to the private insurance
companies depending on their income. The health care plan is more or less like a social
support plan, where the rich people pay the medical cost of the poor people, and the healthy
population funds the cost for the ill. The medical cost is entirely free or co-paid by the
patient, but the payable amount is very less. The insurance continues even the person
becomes unemployed. The government negotiated with the industries associated with
medical services, to cut down the health budget of the country and health-related expense of
the population.
The problem of the health care system is the low pay skill of the doctors. The doctors
get paid very less than what can they earn in the united states. The doctors stopped working,
protested in the street to change the payment structure. However, the situation remains the
same for the doctors(PBS.org, 2020).
Taiwan:
Taiwan, health care system, is a government aid health care system, covering the
whole population.
The health care system is more like America’s medicare for older people, or like
Canada's health care system. The policy covers necessary medical facilities, medicines
facility, optical care and many other medical facilities. The policy is mandatory for all the
citizens, and no one can opt-out from the plan. The plan eliminates the waiting factor from

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the system. The government pay the medical cost of the population by spending a fraction of
the GDP and rest the amount is borrowed from the bank.
The deficiency of the plan lies behind the political condition of the country. The
government is facing a problem in balancing between the quality of care and economic
factor. The government scares to increase the premium that can dissatisfy the population.
However, investing a little more portion of the GDP can help to rectify the situation(PBS.org,
2020).
Switzerland:
The Swiss government make it mandatory for every individual to buy health
insurance, under the law named LAMal or the sickness. The law takes up the charge to bear
the medical cost of the poor.
The health care plan includes all the citizens of the country, including employed and
self-employed. However, the premium is paid by the population, which is a considerable
amount.
The disadvantage of the plan is the rising completion between the insurance
companies. The insurance company competes to take healthy individuals, and exclude the
unhealthy, and ill people to make a higher profit (PBS.org, 2020).

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Reference:
PBS.org (2020). Sick Around the World | Season 2008 Episode 7 | FRONTLINE. [online] PBS.org.
Available at: https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-sick-around-the-world/
PBS.org (2020). Sick Around America | Season 2009 Episode 6 | FRONTLINE. [online] PBS.org.
Available at: https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-sick-around-america/ [Accessed 8 Mar. 2020]