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NATIONALIZED MEDICINE When the government foots the bill, as in Canada, Britain, France, and Sweden, health-care changes tend to be made on a large scale. Governments are most likely to promote prevention and wellness on a mass level. This approach lowers the lifetime cost of health care to half that in the U.S. |
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FREE-MARKET SYSTEMS When choices are determined by how much insurers will reimburse, as in the U.S., advances tend to be incremental rather than systemic. In America, money pours into drug research but little goes into hospital care delivery. This lowers some costs but cannot change the overall health system. |
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EMERGING ECONOMIES When mass poverty defines the patient population in countries like China, India, and Kenya, radical models of delivery are encouraged, and "frugal innovation" delivers health care very cheaply to large numbers of people. A hospital in India offers Lasik eye surgery for $10 per person. |
What Drives Health Care Around the World
The motivation for providing innovative health services varies according to financial incentives