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Politics : A US National Health Care System?
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From: TimF12/28/2009 4:21:01 PM
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The Singapore Alternative

I pointed out on my show last week that health “reform” that gives people more health insurance will only raise health care costs. Insurance itself is the problem. When people don't spend their own money, they don't care what health care costs.

One solution is health saving accounts, or HSAs, in which people spend their own money for routine treatment (HSAs provide insurance for catastrophic health problems). Since Whole Foods adopted that policy in 2003, costs haven't risen -- and employees say they are happy with their coverage.

The country of Singapore is another success story. Singaporeans have universal healthcare, but their system is unique in that it runs on, essentially, the HSA model.

The WHO says that 64 percent of all medical spending in Singapore comes from individuals spending their own money at the doctor's office. In the US it's 13 percent. In France, where the government pays for just about everything, it's 7 percent.

The result? Economist Scott Sumner says:

1. Singapore health care costs only half as much as European health care.

2. Singapore has universal coverage.

3. Singaporeans live much longer than Europeans.

Some of that may be because of differences in culture and crime rates. But Singapore also beats its Asian neighbors that have government-run health care: Singaporeans spend half as much as Japanese, yet have virtually the same life span.

If we do want universal care, more HSAs would be better than Congress’ 2,000 pages of micromanagement.

stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com
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