Switzerland Health Care System - Essay Example

? Switzerland Health Care system Health sciences and medicine, Essay user [Pick the Switzerland is considered to be one of the most important countries in world because of its geographical and economic significance. Switzerland comprises of 23 cantons and has boarders with France from the western side, Germany from the northern region, Austrian, Liechtenstein in east and Italy on the south. Switzerland is located in the central Europe and has a great significance due to its business hubs and active financial markets throughout the world. According to an estimate carried out in 2012, the population of Switzerland is calculated to be around 8,000,000 making a population density of around 188/km2. The Swiss culture is of very diverse and rich nature having the effect and influence of three bordering countries in its culture and society. The Romansh culture in Graubunden valleys is also a very important part of the local culture as it increases the social depth, richness and attracts a huge lot of tourists around the world resulting in augmenting economic and financial gains. The health systems and conditions in Switzerland are regarded one of the most sophisticated and facilitating health systems in the Europe as they ensure the health benefits for the citizens of Swiss federation. Every citizen has an obligation to get a health certificate from private insurance company and the private companies are forced to accept each application from the patients in order to apply the legal formulations. The pricing is relatively high as compared to other parts of Europe but the results are depicting the exhausting of the money of the citizens in the right direction. A study conducted in 2006 showed that the expected death age for men is around 79 years and 84 years for women which are far much better if compared with other parts of the world. The mortality rate is calculated to be around 8.8 death/1000 citizens annually for the year of 2012. The health indicators show that most of the deaths occurring in Switzerland are because of malignant neoplasms followed by ischaemic heart disease (SDR 100.4). The health problems in the prisons are not good at all and the statistics are showing a very detrimental rate of death in side prisons of Switzerland which will be discussed later in this paper. Among the causes of deaths, the external causes of deaths have a key role to play in any country. The rate of deaths because of the external causes is much depleted because of the law abiding environments and rule of law all around the country and at every level. The external causes are responsible for around 57.8 deaths per 10,000 among which only 8.4 deaths are because of vehicle accidents. This rate depicts the good governance of the governmental authorities (Schoenenberger & Stuck, 2006). The fee structures of health facilities are decided by the consensus among cantonal government present in different areas of Switzerland and the health regulatory authorities. The regulatory authorities have a duty to represent the citizens at every level in order to make sure that the price does not exceed the minimum bearing level of each citizen. In case of disasters and accidents, the government provides free of cost treatment for the citizens (Daley & Gubb, 2007). A comprehensive comparison between the health care indicators was done in order to investigate the results on the basis of functional requirements. In 2006, the American government spent around $7,538 per capita on health which is regarded as the highest number of expenditures spent on health by any country and this figure is also double of the median set by OECD which is around 2995$. Contrary to this, the spending on health in Switzerland was around $5,003 per capita which makes two third less than that of spending on health in America. Switzerland enjoys the highest rate of out of pocket spending which is from outside the budget. It is calculated to be around $1,424 whereas in America, the out of pocket spending on health is just around 912$. The total number of practicing physicians and doctors in Switzerland is around 3.82 per 1000 populations whereas America has around 2.43 people who are practicing physicians per 1000 populations. This shows the elevated medical awareness and quality of education is Switzerland as compared to America. Other health indicators like birth rate and mortality rate in Switzerland are also good as compared to America (Squires, 2011). The villages in Switzerland have special home care systems called Spitex which can be used by the local people in order to get the patient admitted and give him the necessary treatment before transferring him to the special facilities in the urban areas. The medical and social insurance systems for the citizen in Switzerland are based upon three pillars. The first pillar is contributed by mandatory income-based employer and the community enjoys the benefits of the insurance system after the retirements from the normal jobs and work. The second pillar of financial benefits of the insurance is personal savings accounts of all the citizens in which every citizen has to submit some amount of money every month so that he can avail it in the hour of need. This gives rise to self serving insurance system which does not need efforts of the government at the optimal level. The third pillar of the insurance system in Switzerland is preferential tax benefits which are based on voluntary services by the citizens (Minder et al, 2000). The Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS) issued guidelines for the overall and collective attitudes for life and death in the Swiss culture and every person should follow it. The citizens are open to discuss about the natural causes of death and life in the society. According to a study, among the total suicides in Switzerland for a ten year time period, 67% of them were committed by persons of age 65 whereas 16 % of the suicides were committed by persons in the age group of 85. There are professional associations, health insurance companies, public advisory councils and hospital regulatory authorities working for the insurance in Switzerland. Ambulatory health care is the major form of health delivery system in Switzerland where office practices are the primary means to contact patient and facilitate them. There are number of problems in Swiss health care systems. The first of them is privilege problems for the citizens. Every citizen can use the health care facilities in his registered area or canton of residency but he cannot get the “basic package” outside that area. The second problem is identified to be the elevating costs of the health care systems. Concomitant is of around 11.4 per cent of GDP, still the health facilities are becoming much difficult to afford for many citizens. The third problem, which is of the most significant magnitude and grave importance, is health problems among the detainees and prisoners throughout the country. According to a study in which 2195 health records were reviewed, 57.6% had primary care problems, 18.3% had digestive problems, 23.5% had infectious diseases, 15.0% had respiratory problems and 32.6% had mental health issues. This shows the lack of heed by the government in this issue. The environments of the prisons and detainee centers are not good at all and the situation is detrimental for the local people as well (Wolff et al, 2011). The main causes behind these issues are cultural and societal because prisoners are never considered to be worthy of care and support. The crime rate is also very less and that is why people loathe the prisoners and do not care them anymore. The main strength of health care system in Switzerland is quality of services provided and implementation of law whereas elevation of costs and overlooking of the rejected classes are the weaknesses. The qualities of services are clearly depicted from the results mentioned in the paper. There are multiple regulatory bodies working in Switzerland to ensure the regulation and quality of the health facilities provided to the citizens (Zweifel, 2006). References Daley, C., & Gubb, J. (2007). The Swiss Health System. CIVITAS Institute for the Study of Civil Society. Retrieved from www. civitas. org. uk/nhs/switzerland. pdf. Minder, A., Schoenholzer, H., & Amiet, M. (2000). Health Care Systems in Transition–Switzerland. European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. Berkshire, UK: Open University Press. Financing health in high-income countries, 309. Schoenenberger, A. W., & Stuck, A. E. (2006). Health care for older persons in Switzerland: a country profile. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society,54(6), 986-990. Squires, D. A. (2011). The US health system in perspective: a comparison of twelve industrialized nations. Issue brief (Commonwealth Fund), 16, 1. Wolff, H., Sebo, P., Haller, D. M., Eytan, A., Niveau, G., Bertrand, D., ... & Cerutti, B. (2011). Health problems among detainees in Switzerland: a study using the ICPC-2 classification. BMC public health, 11(1), 245. Zweifel, P. (2006). Building a Competitive Insurance System. Switzerlands Strategy for Managed-Care Healthcare. Pharmacoeconomics, 24(Suppl 2), 111-119. Read More