Health Care

UNITED KINGDOM:
Average Family Premium: None
Co-Payments: None for most services
What is it?: 
- socialized medicine
- government both provides and pays for health care
How does it work:
- administrative costs are low
- patients must see their GP before going to a specialist
- GPs are instrumental in preventive care, an area in which Britain is a world leader
What are the concerns? :
- long waits and limited choice
- the British government has instituted reforms to help make care more competitive
GDP: 8.3  

JAPAN:
Average Family Premium: $280 per month
Co-payments: 30 percent of the cost of a procedure
What is it? : 
- social insurance
- all citizens are required to have health insurance
- Those who can't afford the premiums receive public assistance
-Most health insurance is private
How does it work?: 
- there are no gatekeepers
- Japanese can go to any specialist when and as often as they like
What are the concerns?:
- Japan now spends too little on health care
- patients may lack a medical home 
GDP: 8

GERMANY:
Average family premium: $750 per month
Co-payments: 10 euros ($15) every three months
What is it?: 
- social insurance model
- Germans are free to buy their insurance from one of more than 200 private, nonprofit "sickness funds."
- the poor receive public assistance to pay their premiums
How does it work?:
- Sickness funds are nonprofit
- fund managers are paid based on the size of their enrollments
- the sickness funds bargain with doctors as a group
What are the concerns?:
- some German doctors feeling underpaid
GDP: 10.7

  TAIWAN:
Average family premium: $650 per year for a family for four
Co-payments: 20 percent of the cost of drugs. Up to $7 for outpatient care; $1.80 for dental and traditional Chinese medicine
What is it?: 
- National Health Insurance
- all citizens must have insurance
- there is only one, government-run insurer
How does it work?:
- extended insurance to the 40 percent of the population that lacked it
- decreasing the growth of health care spending
- Every citizen has a smart card
What are the concerns?: 
- Taiwan's system is not taking in enough money to cover the medical care it provides
 GDP: 6.3

SWITZERLAND
Average monthly family premium: $750
Co-payments: 10 percent of the cost of services
What is it?: 
-social insurance
- All citizens are required to have coverage; those not covered were automatically assigned to a company
How does it work?:
- universal coverage is possible, even in a highly capitalist nation
- Insurance companies are not allowed to make a profit on basic care
- They can make money on supplemental insurance
What are the concerns?:
- The Swiss system is the second most expensive in the world
 GDP: 11.6

I think I would choose either Japan's or Switzerland's system. Japan's is beneficial because it has been so successful (although implementing it with unhealthy Americans would be interesting) and Switzerland's is nice because they are always getting everything right and we should be more like them.