Health Care System in Singapore

In his book titled The Undercover Economist*, Tim Harford cited the case of Singapore when detailing the state, and ways of fixing the U.S. health care system.

Unless I am gravely mistaken, Harford's central argument about health care is that medical goods and services are among the most difficult to distribute, and that a failed market system is the defining feature of the U.S. health care system. More specifically, as Harford argued, "it's the lack of information that is most serious."

But in the case of Singapore's health care system, Harford noted that the system has been successful for almost two decades and that the typical Singaporean lives to the age of 80.

"The cost of the system (both public and private) is a thousand dollars per person - less than the cost of the bureaucracy alone in the United States. Each year the typical Singaporean pays about seven hundred dollars privately (the average American pays twenty-five hundred dollars privately) and the government spends three hundred dollars per person (five times less than the British government and seven times less than the American government)."

Harford then went on to say that the reason why Singapore's success is uncommon is "probably that policy debates get stuck with one side claiming that we should rely on the market, and the other side asserting that the government would do a better job. So, government or market?"

Harford also pointed out that Singapore's government had the power to tackle the problem head on "by using forced saving and catastrophe insurance to make sure costs were manageable but keeping the power of patient choice at the heart of the system."

All I can say is - these all sounded rather vague and murky to me.

Maybe what Harford is trying to say is that while it is good for governments to occasionally intervene, it is not possible in most instances since Singapore is an aberration? And that while governments can indeed replace markets, it is much better for them to try and fix the market?

* Exposing why the rich are rich, the poor are poor - and why you can never buy a decent used car! (As seen on the front cover of the book)