[quote=Jazzman]
I have been to Taiwanese hospitals a couple of times. Once for a two day stay for a complete, top-to-toe body check. I don’t remember exactly how much it cost, but I do remember it was a fraction of the cost here. The second time I used a hospital dentist. Excellent service, very effective, and much cheaper. They issue you with an electronic card that has all the data about your visits, health, etc. Fantastic! How did they achieve this? They were not too proud to admit their system was creaky and so went around the world taking the best parts of other healthcare systems to create their own unique system. The result is probably one of the best healthcare systems in the world. A very rational approach.[/quote]
This is not to say the Taiwanese system is perfect. There’s still a lot of waste intrinsic to the system. For example, doctors and hospitals still over-treat terminal patients to maximize in-hospital stay for the sake of reimbursement. Inpatient stays are also dragged out for the same purpose. There’s also a tendency to over-prescribe due to lack of time with the patient.
But because the Taiwanese National Health Insurance has the power of monopoly, cost is controlled despite the problems above.
[img_assist|nid=17719|title=Taiwan health care cost as % of GDP|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=466|height=327]
here’s the US graph:
[img_assist|nid=17724|title=US health care cost as percentage of GDP|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=466|height=318]
