Rwanda and Bangladesh Have Universal Healthcare -- Why Can't America?

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/rwanda-and-bangladesh-have-universal-healthcare-why-cant-america

Twenty-five hundred years ago, the young Gautama Buddha left his princely home, in the foothills of the Himalayas, in a state of agitation and agony. What was he so distressed about? We learn from his biography that he was moved in particular by seeing the penalties of ill health – by the sight of mortality (a dead body being taken to cremation), morbidity (a person severely afflicted by illness), and disability (a person reduced and ravaged by unaided old age). Health has been a primary concern of human beings throughout history. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that healthcare for all – “universal healthcare” (UHC) – has been a highly appealing social objective in most countries in the world, even in those that have not got very far in actually providing it.

The usual reason given for not attempting to provide universal healthcare in a country is poverty. The United States, which can certainly afford to provide healthcare at quite a high level for all Americans, is exceptional in terms of the popularity of the view that any kind of public establishment of universal healthcare must somehow involve unacceptable intrusions into private life. There is considerable political complexity in the resistance to UHC in the US, often led by medical business and fed by ideologues who want “the government to be out of our lives”, and also in the systematic cultivation of a deep suspicion of any kind of national health service, as is standard in Europe (“socialised medicine” is now a term of horror in the US).

One of the oddities in the contemporary world is our astonishing failure to make adequate use of policy lessons that can be drawn from the diversity of experiences that the heterogeneous world already provides. There is much evidence of the big contributions that UHC can make in advancing the lives of people, and also (and this is very important) in enhancing economic and social opportunities – including facilitating the possibility of sustained economic growth (as has been firmly demonstrated in the experience of south-east Asian countries, such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and, more recently, China).

Further, a number of poor countries have shown, through their pioneering public policies, that basic healthcare for all can be provided at a remarkably good level at very low cost if the society, including the political and intellectual leadership, can get its act together. There are many examples of such success across the world. None of these individual examples are flawless and each country can learn from the experiences of others. Nevertheless, the lessons that can be derived from these pioneering departures provide a solid basis for the presumption that, in general, the provision of universal healthcare is an achievable goal even in the poorer countries. An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, my book written jointly with Jean Drèze, discusses how the country’s predominantly messy healthcare system can be vastly improved by learning lessons from high-performing nations abroad, and also from the contrasting performances of different states within India that have pursued different health policies.

[Downwinder]

1. Because we must give foreign aid to those that do.

[TRoN33]

2. Bangladesh and Rwanda barely have military forces to spend on...

These countries doesn't even prioritize their 'defense industries'. Good for them.

[valerief]

3. Because our rich people want ALL the money. nt

[Hoppy]

4. Because there aren't health insurance companies in Rwanda.

[Hoppy]

5. Because there aren't health insurance companies in Rwanda,

There is no one to bribe their government.

They don't even have Citizens United or a Supreme Court with Fat Tony in it.

[FrodosPet]

9. Insurance companies in Rwanda

There is both public and private health insurance in Rwanda. Participation is mandatory, and premiums are the same regardless of your income.

http://www.uzaze.com/component/mtree/Rwanda-Business-Directory/financial-and-legal/insurance-companies-Rwanda

http://www.independent.co.ug/rwanda-ed/rwanda/8263-beyond-mandatory-insurance

[mountain grammy]

6. Because Republicans, because profit, because $$$$$

[marions ghost]

7. ^^^^^^

yep

[woo me with science]

14. Republicans *and* Third Way Democrats. In other words, CORPORATISTS.

We cannot go back to the delusion that the problem is only one party, and that our problems will be solved merely by electing more corporate Democrats.

Corporatism drives policy in both parties now, and we must insist on fundamental change to the system. Corporate money out of both parties, our elections, and our government.

[MynameisBlarney]

8. Easy.

Because, unfettered Capitalism.

[homegirl]

10. Rwanda is also

first in the world in female representation in elected political offices (44%). The USA just moved up from 91st to 88th (17%)


!

[gregcrawford]

11. If Republicans don't want us to have universal healthcare...

... then they have to give up their FREE lifetime gold-plated healthcare that WE pay for! Until then, STFU!

[woo me with science]

16. Corporatists in both parties enable this looting.

The corrupting influence of corporate money must be removed from the system as a whole, not just one party.

The MO of corrupt corporate politicians is to distract us with Red versus Blue battles within the corrupt system, when what is needed is reform of the corrupt system itself.

[Enthusiast]

12. Kicked and recommended!

Profit.

Our health care system is profit driven. Every aspect of our health care system, from diagnosis to treatment, is geared toward removing money from the patient.

If the patient's money was illness, we would all be healthy.

Corporations use this profit, this money, to influence the election and legislative process to make certain that this profit gravy train is never disrupted.

Any time you read a DUer saying that our present system is acceptable and saying there are "things" wrong with foreign universal systems, you can be almost certain they are paid representatives of this profit system. This status quo needs near constant defense because the system is indefensible.

This is why we say the Citizens United decision has ruined the nation. The nation cannot even correct the huge obvious flaws in the health care system for the corporate money clogging the process. There are also paid DU sockpuppets defending Citizens United.

We need to recognize the source of the problem.

[hack89]

13. Rwanda has universal and mandatory health insurance

One key reason that Rwandans are so much healthier today is the spread of health insurance. In 1999, Rwanda’s health facilities sat unused, as the vast majority of people couldn’t afford them. In response, the Health Ministry began a pilot project of health insurance in three districts. In 2004, the program began to spread across the nation. Now health insurance — called Mutuelle de Santé — is nearly universal. Andrew Makaka, who manages the health financing unit at the Ministry of Health, said that only 4 percent of Rwandans are uninsured.

Mutuelle is a community system — premiums go into a local risk pool and are administered by communities. Until last year, Mutuelle’s premiums were about two dollars a year. This system turned out to be untenable — even two dollars a year was too much for a lot of people. (If you are a rural farmer with an income of some $150 a year, you have to spend every penny on food.)

Last year Mutuelle adopted a sliding scale. For the wealthiest, premiums essentially quadrupled, to about $8 a year. Each visit to a clinic has a co-pay of about 33 cents. If you need to go to the hospital, you pay a tenth of your hospital bill.

But now the poorest — as judged by their communities — pay nothing. The Health Ministry says that the poorest 25 percent of Rwandans get free care. (There is great pressure to over-report success in Rwanda, so this statistic, like others from the ministry, may be slightly exaggerated.)

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/rwandas-health-care-miracle/?_r=0

[Xyzse]

15. Profit!

[woo me with science]

17. It is unconscionable that corporatists succeed in the continuation

of this predatory and corrupt system.

[woo me with science]

18. K&R