Even as Americans debate whether to scrap President Obamas healthcare law and its promise of guaranteed health coverage, many far less affluent nations are moving in the opposite direction — to provide medical insurance to all citizens.
China, after years of underfunding healthcare, is on track to complete a three-year, $124-billion initiative projected to cover more than 90% of the nations residents.
Mexico, which a decade ago covered less than half its population, just completed an eight-year drive for universal coverage that has dramatically expanded Mexicans access to life-saving treatments for diseases such as leukemia and breast cancer.
In Thailand, where the gross domestic product per person is a fifth of Americas, just 1% of the population lacks health insurance. And in sub-Saharan Africa, Rwanda and Ghana — two of the worlds poorest nations — are working to create networks of insurance plans to cover their citizens.
“This is truly a global movement,” said Dr. Julio Frenk, a former health minister in Mexico and dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. “As countries advance, they are realizing that creating universal healthcare systems is a necessity for long-term economic development.”
Many countries are still struggling to improve the quality of their medical care. And making healthcare affordable remains a challenge for most countries, as it does for the U.S., where about 15% of the population lacks coverage.
But the international drive to provide healthcare for everyone is increasingly leaving America behind.
SOURCE: Global push to guarantee healthcare coverage leaves U.S. behind – latimes.com.