Compare health insurance practices in the US vs. those in four other industrialized nations in terms of how these affect health care costs and health expectancies.

A. Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan share the problem of rising health care costs with the United States, but they have controlled some of the influencing factors that the US has not.
1. Canada minimizes administrative costs by using a single-payer system.
2. Great Britain limits access to high-technology medicine.
3. Germany limits hospital expenditures on high-tech equipment, and limits some payments to physicians.
4. Japan uses an insurance system like the US, but with some important differences:
a. The government regulates service costs and fee amounts.
b. Insurers do not compete with one another as they do in the US.
c. Japan also has lower obesity rates than many other nations, contributing to better population health.
A. Disadvantages of the cost containment strategies above:
1. Canadians wait longer for knee replacement, MRIs, mammograms, and similar procedures than Americans.
a. However, these procedures cost significantly less in Canada than in the US.
b. Delays may present health and life risks in some cases.
c. In some cases, Americans are overtreated; limiting access could have minimal effects on health outcomes, or even improve life and health expectancies.
2. Based on the longer life expectancy of Canadians, it is inferred that the health care delays they encounter do not present major dangers.
B. Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan have all reduced competition for profits by health insurers, but the USA has not.
C. The four countries above all provide universal health care coverage, but the USA does not.
D. President Barack Obama's 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has increased access for many Americans.
1. While many have tried to obstruct this law's implementation, the US Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in 2012.
2. Despite implementation of the law, health care reform in the USA is still an urgent matter.