Greek Model

“There are three basic goals for a National Health Care System; 1) keeping people healthy, 2) treating the sick and 30 protecting families against financial ruin from medical bills”, (Physicians for a National Health Program, 2016). No truer statement could there possibly be written or proclaimed as there is a crisis in healthcare costs across the United States. United States, one of the most developed western country, yet we suffer from – higher infant mortality rates, have shorter life spans and are affected by more chronic disease and or illness – than our contemporaries all while spending the most for insurance per capita and less annual doctor visits with less physicians, (OECD Health Data 2015). There is a question to be answered, “why”, why are we trailing our contemporaries and more important than that is, is our National Health Care system really working for us? The year 2010 was the beginning of change in the United States where we transitioned from primarily private insurance and welfare to a universal healthcare model, under President Obama with the signing into Law of the Affordable Health Care Act March of 2010. The purpose of the Affordable health care act is to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable healthcare, however in 2016 we are still questioning we’ve been successful based on funding, government sponsored healthcare programs, effects on the current HCO, elderly, military and accessibility.

Germany’s healthcare system is split into two types of coverage which is public and private health insurance. Health insurance companies are not able to deny people coverage due to pre-existing illnesses or to discontinue their treatment because of high costs. The public health care insurance is provided by statute to individuals who are not eligible for private insurance which is people who are salary and make under $50,000 annually. As people age and become ill, they are able to opt out of their insurance and turn to the government’s option. As the economy continues to fluctuate, the population of Germany relies more heavily on the legislative insurance which consists of 85-90% of the population.

Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.

Just before you go to sleep, you image yourself taking a ride to the White House. You then notice it's beautiful columns. As you look through columns, this type of architecture is ancient Greek. There are other place to find these Greek columns. Besides architecture, other developments from ancient civilizations have an impact on our world today, such as roads and Gregorian calendar.

Citizens in America obtain healthcare either through an employer, Medicare, or ,for the forty-five million, out-of-pocket. The number one in healthcare, Japan, uses the Bismarck model system- healthcare through insurance. America is almost the same, except the Bismarck insurance insures everyone without making a profit. Japan has more privately owned hospitals than America. This model can be funded several different ways for cost-control. The reason we have not changed our healthcare system is because of federal debt. Half of the health care costs are paid by the government. This debt will be America's downfall, but also the healthcare reform it so desperately

The United States along with other countries try to find ways to control medical costs. In 2009, the United States changed HMOs into accountable health organizations in which hospitals and doctors form an alliance and take financial and management responsibilities for their patients (Rodwin, 2010). France changed how they did their billing and started using state managed care. By 2012, Japan should be processing all claims through electronic billing. Instead of fee-for-service, Japan is using per-diem and bundled payments to pay physicians and hospitals. No matter how a country looks at it managed care tools are still around, and they will always be. The government just needs to listen to the voice of its people (Rodwin, 2010).

1. There are four generic plans for health care reform discussed in the text. The Canadian system is discussed, along with the German system, the British system and the American one. The current health care reform, the Affordable Care Act, is significantly different from either of the three other systems, but also represents a significant departure from prior American practice as well. The ACA features a mandate that each person must have health insurance. There are provisions to make it easier for companies to provide this, and for individuals to have insurance subsidized by the government. The plan also includes a number of reforms to Medicare and Medicaid to cut the cost of those programs, theoretically to pay for the ACA. The individual mandate is a contentious part of the program, but is essential because one of the objectives of the act is to provide health care for all Americans (White House.gov, 2013).

There are many individuals’ that think the German health care system is one of the best in the world. Back in 1883 a man by the name of Otto von Bismarck, created Germany’s health care system; a universal health care system which is the oldest in Europe ("Otto von Bismarck," 2012). When the German health care system was created, it was mandatory for a select few mainly, low-income workers and specific government employees. Gradually the system was expanded to cover the entire German population. Under the German universal health care system 85 % of their population has

Japan has had a relatively inexpensive universal health insurance system for more than 50 years. Germany made health insurance mandatory for its entire population in 2009. Chile has given all Chileans access to a basic health care package since 2005.

Bismarck The Bismarck Model provides universal healthcare for all citizens using a “sick fund” that is paid for by employers and employees. These funds are government regulated and drive costs down. Bismarck includes everyone. The ACA is similar to the Bismarck in that it attempts to allow everyone to have coverage by filling in the gaps for those uninsured.

Germany’s and the United States’ healthcare systems compare and contrast in many ways. Germany has the third richest economy in the world and many categorize their healthcare system as socialized. Germany provides medical care to all of the citizens—young, poor, old, sick, and injured. Otto von Bismarck the Prussian chancellor in the 1880s in Germany invented the concept of healthcare systems, the notion that a government has to provide mechanisms so all its people can get medical care when they need it. In 1883, the Sickness Insurance Act was passed, representing the first social insurance program. Over the past 130 years the

In the Bismark model health care costs are covered jointly by employers and employees. The health care insurance is mandatory, has to be offered to every person. Insurance companies do not make profit from the system and they are not allowed by law to refuse to cover people who have a greater risk of developing a disease. Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Japan are all examples of health care systems that employ the Bismark model. The United States uses the Bismark model as well, however, for profit and do not include all the citizens. In addition, most Americans get insurance through their

Historically known as the first universal healthcare system, the German healthcare system follows the Bismarck Model, which was named after the Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck who invented the welfare states as part of the unification of Germany in the nineteenth century (Reid, 2009). Its pioneering law of 1883 required certain employers and employees to make payments to existing voluntary sickness funds, which would pay for the covered employees’ medical care (Reid, 2009).According to Reid (2009), this model:

Conservative economists argue and decry a regulated health care system because of an “adverse selection problem”. One way to lower the price of health care and in turn lower medical insurance is to expand the “pool” of insurance users. So to combat that problem, it is recommended to take a similar approach as in Japan, which boasts the second largest economy and the best health statistics in the world. For example, the Japanese go to the doctor three times as often as Americans, have more than twice as many MRI scans, use more drugs, and spend more days in the hospital. Yet Japan spends about half as much on health care per capita as the United States. By law in Japan, everyone must buy health insurance -- either through an employer or a community plan -- and, unlike in the U.S., insurers cannot turn down a patient for a pre-existing illness, nor are they allowed to make a profit. This approach expands on similar to that of large corporations of 500 or more and pools their resources. Indeed, the entire country loses because of the lost productivity of those whose diseases and disabilities are not addressed because of a lack of health insurance. Currently, there are serious gaps in both public and private health insurance programs in the United States, and these gaps limit access to health care. Neither Medicare nor private employment-related health insurance provides much coverage for long-term care. Private health insurance plans are increasingly

Germany is the first to establish the national social health insurance system in the world since 1883 [136]. The health insurance in Germany is mandatory for all the population [137], and as a universal multi-payer system, it is split in two parts. One is the statutory health insurance (SHI), roughly 85% of the population who are with a free choice of the comprehensive health insurance plan provided by each of more than 200 competing SHI companies [138]. Of these, the medical services are reimbursed by SHI companies, and the framework and contents of quality assurance for these services is specified centrally by the Federal Joint Committee which is the highest decision-making body of the joint self-government of physicians, dentists, hospitals and health insurance