TITLE:
Comparison of Single-Payer and Non Single-Payer Health Care Systems: A Study of Health Administration Efficiency
AUTHORS:
Jia Yu, Yi Zhang
KEYWORDS:
Health Administration Cost, OECD, Data Envelope Analysis, Single-Payer System, Two-Tier Health System, Insurance Mandate System
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.8 No.6,
June
22,
2017
ABSTRACT: The United States spends nearly twice as much per
capita on health care as several OECD countries. Based on previous research,
universal health care decreases the total health care expenditure due to the
single-payer system; it is still unknown whether a mixed health care system has
superiority. In this study, we compare and evaluate both quality of care and
administrative costs among six developed countries, upon three groups:
single-payer universal health care system (Australia and Canada), two-tier
health care system (France and Japan), and insurance mandate health care system
(Switzerland and the US). The results show that both single-payer system and
two-tier system are superior to insurance mandate system on health insurance
administration costs. Also, regarding insurance mandate system, the healthcare
system in Switzerland is more efficient than that in the US. So, we conclude that it is possible
for the US to choose a diverse healthcare system, instead of focusing on one
system, to trim the healthcare administration cost and improve the quality of
care for the entire country.