Benefits of Taiwan's single-payer healthcare system

Congressional Quarterly looks at Taiwan's system of single-payer healthcare, which was put into place in 1995:

"In Taiwan, we have no waiting lists," says Hou [Sheng-Mou]. "In Taiwan, the doctor works on Saturday. They operate on Saturday afternoon." Moreover, the government does not tell its citizens where they must go for care, he said. Sophisticated information technology is a part of the health system. Each resident of the country carries a "smart card" to entitles them to health care.

"With the smart card you can go to any clinic at any time without an appointment," Hou said. And there is no "gatekeeper" denying access to specialists, a frequent complaint among Americans about U.S. managed care companies. [...]

The smart card also contributes to the quality and efficiency of the system by giving doctors a medical profile of the patient and by automating payment. When a provider swipes the card, the patient's medical history and medications show up on the computer screen and the government is billed for the provider's services.

Taiwan's single-payer system isn't perfect; for example, its expenditures are slightly above its revenues, and there is less money available for R&D than in the U.S. On the plus side, Taiwan's system has far lower administrative costs: 1.6% of healthcare spending vs. 15% (as a low estimate) in the U.S. Also, Taiwan insures all its citizens while spending only 6% of its GDP on healthcare, while we spend 16% of our GDP on healthcare and still have 47 million Americans without coverage.