I thought that Dr. Sean Flynn's lecture on healthcare had some fantastic ideas that could really help the United States healthcare system. Singapore has managed to offer extremely high-quality healthcare at an extremely low price. First of all, Dr. Flynn explained that Singapore has an extremely competitive market for healthcare while also being able to maintain a strong social safety net. In a competitive market, Doctors that provide exceptional care are forced to keep their prices down to be competitive while doctors that are low quality are forced to improve or go out of business. Prices are listed before services are given which results in consumers shopping around for the best price. For example, the cost of open-heart surgery in the US is around $130,000 compared to only $18,000 in Singapore which is an incredible difference. Strong competition within the market place keeps prices low and quality high.
Secondly, Dr, Flynn discusses the healthcare system in the United States. The US largely has a 3rd party insurance provider paying the bill, consumers are not incentivized to shop around for cheaper medical care. In addition, healthcare providers almost never post prices so it would be next to impossible to choose the most competitively priced option even if the consumer wanted to. The major exception to this rule is cosmetic surgeries such as LASIK and plastic surgery. The costs of these procudures have fallen dramatically while quality has skyrocketed. There is no reason why other medical procedures would not do this as well if they were forced to compete in a free market. Another issue that the US has is high demand pushing prices higher. Employers being forced to pay for employee healthcare actually drives prices up and tends to not benefit consumers, employers, or even most doctors.
In addition, Dr. Flynn makes a clear case that the United States should not look to countries like Canada or the UK for healthcare solutions. While these countries do have cheaper healthcare than the US, the quality is much worse. Many Canadians come to the US for important medical procedures because the Canadian healthcare system cannot help them in quality or timely ways. In addition, the UK still has some private hospitals, so consumers often elect to go to those places for important healthcare needs while utilizing free healthcare when they deem the needless important. Overall, universal government healthcare may be cheaper per person, but it is still not as cheap as Singapore's model and the quality is even worse than the United States.
A solution that Dr. Flynn proposed that is currently being tested by whole foods is the idea that employees have a high deductible to pay on their insurance and then pay 10% of the costs of healthcare after they meet the deductible. The catch is that employees are "gifted" the amount of the deductable, and if they do not spend all of the "gift", then they get to keep it for themselves. This allowed whole foods to cut its healthcare costs by over 35%. If utilized nationwide, not only would healthcare costs be lower because of lower consumption, but lower demand would actually drive prices down as well which has the potential to cut healthcare costs by 75% which is incredible.
Overall, the United States has not had anything close to a free market in a long time, but following the example of countries such as Singapore or companies such as Whole Foods has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare system in the US by reducing costs and increasing quality. If the majority adopted this type of competitive system, everyone would benefit from cheaper and higher-quality healthcare that provides a safety net while also maintaining competition in the marketplace.