Health Care in Switzerland Consumer Driven : US Driven by Mandates

It's great to see how well the Swiss system works for everyone. But for this system to work here, given all of our millions of illegals, a system that is compromised already by so many on government mandates substance that are broke, and with so many states run by progressive socialist that are near default demanding more and more services from fewer and fewer workers, taxpayers that are already taxed to death, to believe that the Swiss system could work here, one has to invoke a Hillary Clinton idiom from the near past, "a willing suspension of disbelief."

For system like the Swiss to work here, the general population has to come to believe that we are broke, the free lunch they have enjoyed for so many years was actually not free, someone will have to pay sometime for it, and if the general public actually wants free health care for everyone, they will have to give up something else in exchange, personal freedom and the American dream.

The golden goose is dead - there is no more blood that can be wrung from the turnip. We are broke! To refuse to believe this is to accept a new life style of dependency and poverty as the 'new norm' provided by our progressive socialist leadership in Washington.

Can the citizens in America understand what is happening to their country by spending trillions of dollars we don't have, and with trillions more borrowed from overseas to pay for more mandates, ObamaCare and all of the other mandates that are already hugely underfunded, which the next five generations will have to pay back, will they wake up in time to say this is not right? When will it be too late? By the way, who voted for this last November? Why?

Switzerland: A Case Study in Consumer-Driven Health Care
January 11, 2013
Source: Avik Roy, "Switzerland: A Case Study in Consumer-Driven Health Care," Forbes, December 26, 2012

Switzerland is the only developed country with a long-standing consumer-driven health care system. It allows consumers to select their insurance rather than having an employer or government choose, as is the case in the United States, says Avik Roy, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute.

• Swiss consumers primarily pay for the country's health care expenses.
• In 2000, 43 percent of consumers' payments were for insurance premiums, 0.1 percent for deductibles and copayments, and 28 percent for all other out-of-pocket costs.
• But if people could not afford it, the government provided subsidies. In 2001, 19 percent of the insured received subsidies, while 18 percent of enrollee premiums were government financed.

However, the Swiss government is heavily involved in regulating insurers and providers. For instance, it requires certain benefits ranging from health spas to hospital care. Insurers are given the opportunity to offer optional policies like private hospital rooms. Some supplementary plans, for example, contain nonsmoker options, which can save a consumer up to 20 percent if they don't smoke.

The government also approves insurance prices, ensuring that insurers with above-average medical costs receive transfers from those with lower costs. Doctors are also paid a uniform price.
Everyone is covered under the Swiss model, unlike in the United States, where more than 40 million are uninsured despite the new health care law.

 In U.S. states with comparable income, education level, race, and ethnicity to Switzerland, the Swiss have better outcomes for many diseases, including diabetes. Moreover, the Swiss have more resources like hospital beds, physicians and expensive equipment. However, doctors in the United States are slightly better compensated. Swiss insurers also have lower costs than those in the United States. This is because competition among insurers has lowered annual insurance administrative expenses per employee.

Critics contend that in a consumer-driven health care system healthy people won't buy any insurance, raising premiums for sick people that do want to acquire health insurance. However, the Swiss model requires universal coverage and ensures that everyone pays the same price for insurance because premiums are risk-adjusted.