Economics

Officially referred to as the Swiss confederation, Switzerland follows the federal system of government where it is constituted of twenty three Cantons. It falls within central Europe bordering France to the West and Germany northwards. Health indexes collected in 1994 revealed that the countrys life expectancy stood at 78.8 years with an excellent record with regard to infant mortality rate that was placed at five in one thousand live births. At the forefront of its causes of death were neoplasms which were estimated to cause 182 deaths per every 10,000 population unit and ischemic heart disease with a standard death rate (SDR) of approximately 100 together with cerebrovascular diseases which accounted for 48.8 of death. 57.8 per a ten thousand population were attributed to external causes (European Observatory on Health Care Systems, 2000).
The federal government in Switzerland is charged with the fight against communicable diseases of both humans and animals. This government duty is further exemplified through legislated ordinances. In addition, the government is also responsible for promoting sports as well as exercise and the provision of social insurance. Accreditation of medical practitioners and enhancement of scientific research, tertiary education, transplant medicine, genetic engineering and reproductive health are all placed under the governments arm. Lastly the government is also charged with compiling statistics on health, compelling employers to make the work place secure for workers and protecting the environment (Swiss Federal Office for Public Health, 1999).
The healthcare system in Switzerland is both liberalized and decentralized. As such providers are at liberty to locate at a place of their own choosing. The citizenry are also at liberty to select their choice of providers within a canton. Medical institutions are only eligible for re-compensation for services that are clearly stated within the compulsory Health insurance policy. The primary benefits list which constitutes mandatory services of the health insurance policy are all exemplified in law. Cantons such as Basle and Zurich have a legal backing to tame oversupply of doctors by invoking this clause upon universities to implement aptitude tests to students seeking to study medicine. The Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs are mandated to select medical drugs constituted in the mandatory health insurance together with their price.
One aspect that the US health care system can borrow from the Swiss system is the policy of one price. Under the Swiss system everyone contributes the same for the compulsory health insurance (400 francs). This is irrespective of ones salary. In America though the healthcare offered was of utmost quality the price that one has to pay for those services is dear. This is likely to gain the poor who are engrossed in extremely burdensome medical conditions. A case in mind is the one of a Swiss family that was living in America but couldnt afford the quality but expensive medical program in Washington to their daughter who was suffering from juvenile schizophrenia. They relocated to Zurich and paid cheaply for the best that the system could offer their daughter in a facility specially formulated for young psychotics. There costs were covered by the Insurance. This would be practically viable for the US as poor people who can not sustain themselves in its expensive healthcare system will at least have an option while the rich who consider the offered services beneath them will still have the option of going to seek the sophisticated and efficient care.
Under Switzerlands law insurers are restricted from running the healthcare insurance as a business on the primary healthcare plan. Its citizens however are at liberty to reset their premium upwards or downwards by choosing an increased or reduced perennial deductible ( HYPERLINK httpwww.npr.orgtemplatesstorystory.phpstoryId2101102 Rovner 2008). The individuals are also allowed to join the formulated HMO-type which primarily is allows them to roam within the system and choose a medical practitioner of their own liking in the network. If these are enacted within the American system it will enable citizens to select the doctors that they can trust.