Healthcare, health policy, cognitive science. , and the path to Universal Healthcare..
FRONTLINE: sick around the world: five capitalist democracies & how they do it PBS:
“Each has a health care system that delivers health care for everyone — but with remarkable differences.”
Summaries of the five countries covered in the Frontline episode: UK, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and Switzerland.
Frontline: Sick Around the World
Lots to digest, and I’ve only begun to explore the web extras, so I post now for convenience’ sake. Overall, though, TR Reid did a terrific job all around.
From the physicians’ perspective, I, of course would have liked more but they only chose to do an hour. Frankly, this would have been another good use of an extended format Frontline, as they did with “Bush’s War.”
Japan Focus: Discusses a new system trying to address problems of the elderly that may not work out that well…
“The problems with the new system are not limited to its economic burden. The payment schedule for medical treatment is independent of other insurance programs, and it is on a fixed-cost, blanket system. The allowable expense per month is set in advance for each disease. If necessary exams and treatment are cut off because of these limits, it is a de facto restriction of medical care. This is nothing short of the government delivering a death sentence, telling the elderly to die quickly. Will Nakata and Mr. and Mrs. A be able to survive this new system?”
Other topics discussed include:
Stripping the Long-Term Care Beds
The State of Home Healthcare
Physician Shortage Causing Regional Healthcare Collapse
Obstetrics Units Closing throughout Japan
Towns Rocked by “Medical Depopulation”
“There are about 270,000 practicing physicians in Japan, or 2.0 per one thousand population. The OECD average is 3.1, and Japan ranks 27th out of the 30 member countries. Japan has the lowest ratio among the G7 industrialized economies (the US stands at 2.4, Germany and France at 3.4). To reach the OECD average, Japan would need to add some 140,000 doctors.”