The health care system in the United States, with its technological prowess and massive infrastructure, often serves as a reference point for rapidly developing economies around the world while they build their own medical systems. With expanding middle classes demanding more-comprehensive care, governments of these emerging markets are under pressure to invest as chronic disease rates — particularly those related to Western lifestyles — dramatically increase and the average age of their once-young populations begins to rise.
3 Mistakes in U.S. Health Care That Emerging Economies Can’t Afford to Repeat
Such as paying on a fee-for-service basis.
November 08, 2017
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Summary.
As nations in the Middle East and Asia build out their health care systems, many of these countries’ leaders have been looking towards the United States as a model. But the U.S. health care system is in fact rife with problems. In this piece, the authors describe three of the biggest mistake the U.S. system has made, as well as what other countries can do to avoid these pitfalls when developing their own health care infrastructure. First, they suggest that the U.S. has focused exclusively on treating the sick, rather than on keeping people well in the first place. Second, they argue that creating a fee-for-service payment system has been hugely detrimental to the U.S. Finally, they explain that America’s prioritization of physical hospital infrastructure has come at the cost of building a more flexible, mobile approach. Developing nations now have the opportunity to design an optimal system from the ground up. They should take heed of the failures of the U.S., and be sure not to replicate them.