Switzerland Case Study

In 2010, the United States created The Affordable Care Act (ACA). The objective was to share the responsibility of costs between the government, individuals, and employers to provide affordable access to quality health insurance. “However, health coverage remains fragmented, with numerous private and public sources, as well as wide gaps in insured rates across the U.S. population.” (“United States: International Health Care System Profiles,” n.d.). Each individual state within the US, generally has control over private insurance.

The healthcare systems of Switzerland and the United States are quite similar in some aspects and vastly different in others. In Switzerland, the healthcare is universal and available to all. It is provided by private individual insurance companies and subsidized by the government when needed. Basic health insurance is required to be purchased within 3 months of residency or after birth and is an individual’s choice as to what carrier they choose. Of course, there are exceptions to this mandate but they are very few.("Healthcare in Switzerland," “n.d.”, para. 1) Because of this requirement, 99.5% of the population in Switzerland has

Universal Healthcare sounds appealing, but it actually lowers the quality and quantity of healthcare services that are rendered to patients, thus downgrading the healthcare system as a whole.  Not having to pay, with everyone having coverage leads to longer wait times for medical service and many people overusing health care services. Implementation of Universal Healthcare in the United States would lead to a detrimental crippling of the nation’s health system. For those countries that have implemented Universal Healthcare or a system similar to it, all or most aspects of the coverage such as cost and care is generally provided by and tightly controlled by the government, a public-sector committee, or employer-based programs, with most of the funding essentially coming from tax revenues or budget cuts in other areas of spending. This paper will conclude with comparing the US healthcare system to others and how the US has one of the most advanced systems in the world.

Health care spending in the United States of America as a percentage of the economy has reached astonishing heights, equating to 17.7 percent. This number is shocking when compared to other counties; in Australia health care is 8.9 percent, in United Kingdom 9.4 percent, in Canada 11.2 percent. If the American health care system were to hypothetically become its own economy, it would be the fifth-largest in the world. While these statistics sound troubling, they lead us to look for answers about the problems surrounding our system. The first health insurance company was created in the 1930s to give all American families an equal opportunity for hospital care and eventually led to a nationwide economic and social controversy that erupted in the 1990s and continued to be shaped by the government, insurance companies, doctors, and American citizens. In this paper, I will go in to detail about the various opinions regarding the controversy, the history behind health insurance companies, and the main dilemmas brought out by the health care crisis. Greedy insurance companies combined with high costs of doctor visits and pharmaceutical drugs or the inefficient hospitals all over America can only describe the beginning to this in depth crisis. Recently, the United States health care industry has become know for the outrageous costs of insurance models, developments of various social and health services programs, and the frequent changes in medicinal technology.

Before creating Obamacare, million people in the United States could not afford the expenditure to buy health insurances and drug costs. Therefore, they have no chance to prevent diseases or receive treatments. They could be discriminated against coverage and treatment because they had pre-existing conditions. As shown in statistics in the article “Health Coverage before the ACA, and Why All Americans are Better Off Now” of David Simas, the insurance companies could deny to coverage nearly one in two people because they have pre-condition such as heart diseases, cancer, or diabetes.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama in March of 2010. This law provides equal access to medical care, lowered health care costs and eliminates denial of coverage of pre-existing conditions to the millions of the uninsured and insured Americans that were without and denied health care coverage. Patients who were denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions can now look forward to relief and great improvement because their illness is covered in the new policy, and care is now provided for them at next to minimal cost (Stehly,

The Affordable Care Act was created to make an attempt to reduce the amount we pay for healthcare. “Healthcare premiums were too expensive for many families to afford,” is a common issue among citizens today, and we have come to the conclusion that Obamacare can help reduce that amount. Ever since this has been put in place, many Americans deny this, but it says that even if you aren’t 100 percent healthy it will still cover you, unlike regular healthcare premiums opposed that. Another benefit that is presented, it that you don’t have to have a high income or good health to be covered, the act says that it will cover you no matter what condition or state you are in.

The Affordable Care Act has been a hot topic of discussion for almost 6 years. The Affordable Care Act or, Obamacare, is a federal statute that was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23rd, 2010. The Affordable Care Act guarantees access to health care for all Americans, mandates the exploration of new approaches to coordinated health care delivery, gives physicians more information to make them better clinicians and patients more information to make them more

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act or ACA, enables citizens to have affordable health insurance coverage through several legislative provisions (Rosenbaum, 2011). It is through these provisions that the government,

The Affordable Care Act was designed to insure that all Americans would have access to purchase affordable health insurance. It was designed to expand health insurance coverage, improve quality and reduce cost (Affordable Care Act Summary). One of the primary goals of the act was to decrease barriers for obtaining health care coverage and to allow Americans to access needed health care services (Affordable Care Act Summary). One of the requirements, which would eventually cause adverse selection later on, was that the ACA allowed Americans with pre-existing conditions to obtain health insurance without the hassle of being turned down and/or fear of being charged higher premiums. Individuals with pre-existing conditions drive up cost for “healthy” populations (Collins & Nicholson 2010). They

The U.S. is an industrialized nation that continues to be behind on providing health care coverage to all citizens. However, the German health care system came up with a plan that ensured all citizens are provided with some form of health care coverage; nevertheless, the U.S. continues to dispute health care reform and how to provide coverage to all citizens. “Health spending per capita in the United States is much higher than in other countries – at least $2,535 dollars, or 51%, higher than Norway, the next largest per capita spender. Furthermore, the United States spends nearly double the average $3,923 for the 15 countries ("Health Care Cost," 2011, table 1)”.

This paper presents a comparison of the health care systems in the United States and the Netherlands. The health care systems in the United States and the Netherlands are both a work in progress. This paper compares the many common strengths and weaknesses between these two countries health care systems using recent data and current trends. The government of the Netherlands has been working towards providing universal health coverage for their citizens since World War II. The government of the United States is divided on the necessity of providing universal health coverage for its citizens; however, it appears to be moving in this direction. The United States approximately 70 years behind the Netherlands on the health care front. Comparing the similarities and differences in the health care systems of the United States and the Netherlands gives a lot of insight into policy changes and reform that could benefit the United States. The continually improving health care system in the Netherlands may be the best model for the United States as it moves towards a Universal Health Care system.

The ACA requires insurers to accept all applicants, cover certain conditions, and charge the same rates despite one 's sex or pre-existing health status. There are ten provisions that make up the ACA which were to be implemented over time, from 2010 through 2020. The first provision is individual insurance, which prohibits insurers to deny coverage based on one 's pre existing health conditions. States were also required to make insurance available to children who are not insured through their families. Medicaid was also expanded to include individuals and families with an average income of thirty thousand dollars a year. This mandate will not cover those who are illegal immigrants, eligible individuals who choose to not be enrolled in medicaid, those who choose to pay the penalty, individuals whose insurance would cost more than 8% of their income, and those who live in states that opt out of the medicaid expansion.

The affordable Care Act implemented in March of 2010 by president Obama reform the way health care was previously run in the United States. The law went into effect, which allowed many Americans who did not currently have insurance and health care coverage to the ability to purchase coverage and access to health care. “ According to the CDC “ the affordable care act of 2010 is designed to provide access to coverage for previously uninsured Americans “ Center of Disease Control (2014).

Which country has the best health care in the world? Well according to Business Insider, Switzerland ranks as number three in the world (Martin, 2017).