One of the subjects that tends to bring out the worst in people, especially when they live in the United States is healthcare. The entire system just seems to be broken down from the ground up and it doesn’t appear as if it is going to get fixed at anytime soon. Of course, people like to argue over what would be best but the fact still remains that the United States is far behind the rest of the world when it comes to handling healthcare and taking care of their citizens in that respect.
In many first world countries, government-funded healthcare is universal and that is also true in Taiwan. That is where a man by the name of Kevin Bozeat has been living but he did not have any American health insurance and he did not qualify for their healthcare. He found himself in the unfortunate situation where he was sick as a dog and needed to go to the emergency room. He decided to do it and after his roommate called for a taxi, he just thought that he would work out a payment plan when the time came.
This is what happened.
This experience really tells us a lot because, without insurance, he had to pay $80 in American money.
This is where many people in the United States will argue the point that it was a singular situation and that this would never work the same in the United States. They would also probably argue that Taiwan is a Third World country, even though it isn’t!
So Kevin did the math and worked out all of the arguments for the good points that people would be making.
In summation:
The cost of living in Taiwan is about 50% of the cost of living in the U.S. Good luck going to any emergency room here for any reason and getting out of there for less than $160.
Doctors do make less, but they’re still solidly middle class (and there are plenty of people willing to go into the field).
The taxes in Taiwan do pay for healthcare but they’re not high – if you have their national healthcare it works out to about $70.53/month for a person who makes $60k/year.
He acknowledges that there is no such thing as a perfect system but he does give a quote from the Ministry of Health, saying that: “the Taiwanese government believes that healthcare is a right for all of its citizens, rather than a privilege for those who can afford it.”
In other words, if you live in Taiwan, you are covered and are entitled to coverage, regardless of your status.
Of course, Taiwan does have its problems and there are also issues. It just goes to show us that there is still room for improvement.