A global quest for universal health care

The excellent documentary TV series PBS Frontline recently did a feature called Sick Around the World. In the program, veteran journalist T. R. Reid travels to five countries to find out how they launched universal health care. It’s available for viewing online.

I found the program to be pretty balanced, in that it did point out the flaws of universal health care (chronic underfunding, long waits, etc.) as well as the benefits. One of the frequent criticisms of Michael Moore’s Sicko was that it seemed to make other countries’ health care systems appear too perfect.

While primarily a work of investigative journalism, the program also made for a nice travelogue, as Reid goes through the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland.

As I live in Taiwan, I’m quite happy with the National Health Insurance here. I’d like to hear from other vagabonders about countries that delivered high-quality care at a reasonable cost.

For more information, check out this recent article on medical tourism that appeared in The Economist.