(suspenseful music)
- [Narrator] The coronavirus pandemic
is putting healthcare systems around the world to the test.
In the US, it's also revived a debate
over one of the most divisive concepts in American politics;
Should healthcare be free?
- We'll remove or eliminate every obstacle necessary
to deliver our people the care that they need.
- [Narrator] In the U.S. some are worried
about whether hospitals can handle the pandemic,
and what COVID-19 treatment might cost patients.
While in places like Europe, Hong Kong, and Australia,
people are worried about hospitals too,
but not so much the price tag of a hospital stay,
since that's generally covered by taxes.
(ominous music)
So we wanted to know,
what works in a universal healthcare system
and what doesn't?
- I guess I have a unique view in that I've experienced
I think five different healthcare systems to date.
A healthcare system doesn't exist in a silo,
it exists within a culture.
- We're gonna lead this country into a Medicare for all
single payer program.
- We have a chance of killing Obamacare.
We almost did it, but we'll do it a different way.
- [Narrator] In some countries,
universal healthcare is a point of national pride.
(upbeat music)
Just look at the UK.
When London hosted the Olympics in 2012,
the opening ceremony touted the UKs athletes
and its healthcare system.
- Lawson, who was Chancellor of Exchequer
some years ago, said, "The National Health Service
"was the nearest thing that Great Britain
"has to a religion."
- [Narrator] Dr. Geoffrey Rivett has documented the rise
of the UK's National Health Service.
- I'm a doctor, I'm in my 80s,
and I spent my entire working life in the Health Service
or in government, controlling the Health Service.
(suspenseful music)
- [Man] Zero hour in London, Chamberlain speaks.
A state of war exists with Germany.
- So when for us the war broke out on 3rd September, 1939,
major hospitals were evacuated the country,
temporary hospitals were established,
and an emergency hospital surgery which was free,
and organized by command and control, took over.
From that moment, having got a command and control system
under the threat of war, there was no way of going back.
- [Narrator] As European countries dealt with the demand
for medical care that came from World War II,
many built in some form of government run healthcare.
- [Man] This new Health Service will be organized
on a national scale as a public responsibility.
- Well what was going on in the US,
is that President Truman put the weight
of the presidency behind a plan
to have universal healthcare,
but he was unable to get that through congress.
- [Narrator] That's Martin Gorsky,
he's a healthcare historian and he's thought a lot
about how the American healthcare system came to be.
- [Martin] You know there were arguments at the time
about American character, American national culture,
you know the famous pioneer spirit,
the freedom of the individual.
- [Narrator] American culture evolved over time
and in the 60s, President Lyndon B. Johnson,
enacted Medicare and Medicaid.
Today the US government still funds some programs
that could be considered socialized medicine.
Think Medicare for the elderly and disabled,
Medicaid for low income Americans,
and VA Healthcare for veterans.
America also has some of the best doctors
and research facilities in the world,
but there's no universal program
that covers healthcare for everybody.
Kelvin and Enrique Childress have lived all over the world
and their family has experienced a range
of both public and private healthcare systems.
- So I grew up in Nebraska, in the middle of the country,
in a small community.
And so when we first met each other
and then eventually got together and got married,
her coming from a country
where there is socialized benefits,
like socialized healthcare and stuff like that,
I definitely gave her a hard time for that.
Very, very regularly up until,
we'd been married for four or five years,
and I still was giving her a hard time of it.
- Up 'til we moved to the UK.
- [Narrator] Like in most European countries,
any UK resident can walk into a hospital
and get free basic care from the NHS.
Most prescriptions cost just $10 each.
Kids, the elderly, and patients with conditions
like cancer, or some cases of diabetes,
don't pay anything out of pocket.
If you want to pay extra for private care,
because you want to get to see a doctor faster
or need more specialized care
than the NHS can readily provide, you can do that too.
Having that option to go private is common
in most countries with universal healthcare.
- In the states you are being provided
with a product and it's being presented to you
as, it's more of like an experience where you're going,
it's going to be a really nice waiting room.
You're gonna have really nice chairs
and a TV on for you, whereas when we go here,
the wait room is nice, it's fine.
There are chairs that we can sit in,
there's you know, you're not gonna be sitting
in the cold or anything like that,
but it is a very different environment.
- Yeah.
- [Narrator] In both systems, there's a cost to the care.
The biggest difference is whether it's being paid for
by the country as a whole or individual patients.
The budget to run the NHS in 2019
was roughly $170 billion.
That money comes mostly from taxes.
- Coming here, it was a pretty big shock.
You know negotiating a salary
and getting that first paycheck and going,
"Something must be wrong here."
And looking and seeing you know, 30% of the check
was to taxes and all of those things,
but that 30% I mean, when we looked at it
and broke it down, what we were paying for insurance
back in the States, it wouldn't have
been a difference really, I mean.
- I think it would be slightly higher.
- Yeah. - And I think
there is no price on peace of mind.
- [Narrator] As a percentage of its GDP,
the US actually spends more on healthcare
than any other developed country.
It's roughly 17% in the US and just 9.6% in the UK.
Researchers say, that's because of higher prices.
The US has higher drug prices, doctor salaries,
and hospital admin costs.
While much of the healthcare sector in the US
is focused on turning a profit,
in a country like the UK,
the National Health Service is seen
as part of the government.
- [Reporter] All the main political parties are promising
more money for England's NHS,
but it's needed now.
Already delays in treatment and staff shortages
are at record levels.
- [Crowd] Save our NHS, save our NHS!
Save our NHS. - When the government
dials back its spending, the healthcare system
suffers cuts too.
NHS providers ended 2019
with a roughly $700 million deficit.
Some providers have tried to make up for that
by cutting costs and hiring private contractors
to run parts of the system,
like specialized care or food services.
- There are definitely cons.
So for example, if you're getting something done
that is non emergent, it does take time
to get in and get seen. - Yeah.
- [Narrator] As hospital services get cut
and the population gets older,
UK hospitals have become overcrowded,
causing sometimes months long wait times
for non emergency procedures.
(dramatic music)
Even if America were to create
its own universal healthcare system one day,
it would look much different than anything
that exists elsewhere today.
The US already has a trillion dollar
health insurance industry.
There is hundreds of millions of dollars
spent on healthcare lobbying every year
and the cultural attitude towards taxes
is just different from other countries.
So politicians in the US have proposed a range of changes,
from replacing the Affordable Care Act altogether,
to a single payer system,
or a mix of private and public options.
- I think that it's easy for people
in smaller countries, like the UK to say,
"Well why don't they just do something
"like this in the States."
And I think it's really easy
for someone in the States to say,
"Well, you're a really small country,
"of course you can do it."
And I think both people are right.
- [Narrator] The coronavirus pandemic
has brought the government's attention
to the healthcare system.
Congress passed a bill making all COVID-19 testing
free for patients,
the White House plans to pay hospitals
for coronavirus treatment for people without insurance,
and states have been pouring resources
into providing care for people during the crisis.
Still recent polls conducted before the pandemic
showed many Americans just aren't sold
on the idea of a fully government run healthcare system.
But coronavirus is likely to weigh heavy
on the minds of American voters
as they decide who will lead the country forward
and what they want their healthcare system to look like.