Cos Sporns are told to die if they cannot afford to go to hospitals?
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Why S'poreans don't face huge medical debts
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->ASSISTANT Professor Deborah Kay Elms, in her commentary on Tuesday, 'Why it's difficult to reform US health care', has given us a clear analysis of what ails the American health-care system.
The unpleasant truth is that the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is medical debt, which is seldom heard of in this part of the world. The American health-care system is the most expensive in the world and the US government spends more than US$2 trillion (S$2.8 trillion) on health care every year.
Doctors in the US practise in an environment where they face the constant threat of malpractice suits, and they occasionally also need to battle the giant insurance companies. The net result is more tests and surgical operations, and costs are then passed on to patients.
The tort laws there need to be reformed. Practising medicine is not a zero-sum game. Doctors are not semi-gods and the patient has to bear some personal responsibility in the equation. If courts award millions of dollars for a simple malpractice suit, then medical costs will inevitably soar upwards.
Insurance companies should also consider the 'wellness' of the consumer, and if he lives a healthy lifestyle without liquor and tobacco, then he should be rewarded with lower premiums.
In 1948, Britain introduced the National Health Service (NHS) and everyone was happy with the unlimited medical care to extend one's life expectancy. The NHS is a centralised government version of the one-payer system, and it pays directly for health care and finances the system through general tax revenues. Most doctors and nurses are government employees.
Today, the cracks of the NHS are beginning to show. The waiting time for medical treatment is unusually long. As many as 750,000 Britons are waiting to be treated in British hospitals. Cancer patients may have to wait eight months for treatment, by which time the disease may have taken its toll.
Expensive medical procedures like open heart surgery and kidney transplants are now rationed. Those patients who are too old or too ill are denied treatment. Currently, 10 per cent of Britons have private health insurance and this cuts down their waiting time for treatment.
No hospital is a utopia and people will still face co-payments and premiums. We cannot blindly follow the American or British health- care systems. Whatever faults we have in our health system, one thing is for sure: We are not going to get perfection in this side of eternity.
Heng Cho Choon
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Why S'poreans don't face huge medical debts
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->ASSISTANT Professor Deborah Kay Elms, in her commentary on Tuesday, 'Why it's difficult to reform US health care', has given us a clear analysis of what ails the American health-care system.
The unpleasant truth is that the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is medical debt, which is seldom heard of in this part of the world. The American health-care system is the most expensive in the world and the US government spends more than US$2 trillion (S$2.8 trillion) on health care every year.
Doctors in the US practise in an environment where they face the constant threat of malpractice suits, and they occasionally also need to battle the giant insurance companies. The net result is more tests and surgical operations, and costs are then passed on to patients.
The tort laws there need to be reformed. Practising medicine is not a zero-sum game. Doctors are not semi-gods and the patient has to bear some personal responsibility in the equation. If courts award millions of dollars for a simple malpractice suit, then medical costs will inevitably soar upwards.
Insurance companies should also consider the 'wellness' of the consumer, and if he lives a healthy lifestyle without liquor and tobacco, then he should be rewarded with lower premiums.
In 1948, Britain introduced the National Health Service (NHS) and everyone was happy with the unlimited medical care to extend one's life expectancy. The NHS is a centralised government version of the one-payer system, and it pays directly for health care and finances the system through general tax revenues. Most doctors and nurses are government employees.
Today, the cracks of the NHS are beginning to show. The waiting time for medical treatment is unusually long. As many as 750,000 Britons are waiting to be treated in British hospitals. Cancer patients may have to wait eight months for treatment, by which time the disease may have taken its toll.
Expensive medical procedures like open heart surgery and kidney transplants are now rationed. Those patients who are too old or too ill are denied treatment. Currently, 10 per cent of Britons have private health insurance and this cuts down their waiting time for treatment.
No hospital is a utopia and people will still face co-payments and premiums. We cannot blindly follow the American or British health- care systems. Whatever faults we have in our health system, one thing is for sure: We are not going to get perfection in this side of eternity.
Heng Cho Choon
