Week 11 Reflection -- Comparisons on Healthcare

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When listening to Dr. Sean Masaki Flynn’s presentation “The Cure That Works,” one of the points he made that most stuck out to me was his example of American citizens’ ability to compare prices and how that relates to his healthcare example in Singapore. His first demonstration involved the ability to seek out better prices when considering which doctor or facility to perform a certain procedure or operation within America. He used Dr. Trost and another residing doctor as an example of separate competing doctors. Dr. Flynn stated that one doctor (Dr. Trost in this example) might be charging less for the same procedure, but have a mortality rate of around 2%, while another doctor (Dr. Richard) may charge significantly more, but have a zero percent mortality rate. What matters is the ability to choose. Every American must decide what is more important to them when choosing a doctor. They must decide if they would rather spend extra money, or take the risk of dying during their surgery. However they decide, each of them are able to choose which doctor to spend their money with. With the Singaporean healthcare, Dr. Flynn stated that, unlike American healthcare, their premium would only be around $50. With this extreme difference in costs, the users of this healthcare system would also retain their ability to choose where and with whom they do business. Not only are they able to, but they are also incentivized to do so. He states that the first two thousand dollars are paid by the user and after that a ten percent copay is given. This gives the system’s users the desire to go out and seek the greatest deals or doctors across the nation. Compared to the free health care systems found in areas and countries such as Europe and Canada, where the price is free but the demand makes it difficult to find a doctor to perform the operation or procedure, this Singaporean healthcare diminishes the struggling demand and promotes healthy competition amongst doctors and facilities.