How Taiwan Created its Healthcare System - An Explainer

I had already been working on this for a while now but since this article has come out - I figured it was time to accelerate. In this video, I am going to look at the evolution of Taiwan’s health care system and point out a few things I noticed about how they created it that I think might better your understanding.
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[@Mrpastry909]

I’m an American who lived in Taiwan 2 years and was on Taiwan’s insurance. I love Taiwan and miss its wonderful insurance.

[@97Syahmie]

Going on a binging stream of your stuff from all the way back to now, and you've improved so so much in your presentation. Keep up the amazing work, I love your channel!

[@JimNH777]

You tell in a simple way so many interesting things about Taiwan, You deserve many more subscribers. Glad I've found Your channel :)

[@vigneshdwarakanathan2980]

@asianometry, can you please tell me the source of the graph shown in 5:10, depicting coverage of health insurance in taiwan? I am not able to trace or find similar information.

[@chinaberg]

Good job on the videos. Taiwan is a second home. Headed there in December for vacation. Glad to have these videos for education and entertainment.

[@Asianometry]

Thanks for your kind words. I hope you enjoy Taiwan during your second visit. What topics would you like to see from this channel address in the future?

[@chinaberg]

@@Asianometry I would like a video about how Taiwan and China manages their relations with each other. Specifically, the Mainland Affairs Council/Straits Exchange Foundation and the Taiwan Affairs Office for Taiwan and China, respectively.

[@chinaberg]

Thanks.

[@StephenRayner]

I would love for the USA to learn from Taiwan and the UK. I would rather fly back to Taiwan than have dental or medical work in the UK. Although I don’t as it’s impractical

[@grizwoldphantasia5005]

I'm an American and don't know much detail or history of government health care in other countries, other than the usual horror stories. I believe US health care is especially warped because of its unique history. * Mutual aid societies, like the Elks and other lodges, are only known today for secret handshakes and funny hats. They used to be true "mutual aid societies", where dues paid for life insurance, charity, and health care. They hired doctors at a flat rate, so much $$$ for caring for so many members and families. The medical unions, like the current AMA, hated this with a passion, since it lowered how much money they could charge, and they convinced the government to require medical school certificates, limiting how many students could be educated. They were quite upfront about this, not disguising their motives at all: reduce the number of doctors to raise pay of the remaining. * Medical care was still reasonably cheap and accessible until WW II. Wage controls prevented companies from competing for workers, and they started adding benefits which were not part of the wage controls, among them being employer-paid health care and insurance. The government dithered and finally decided to turn a blind eye, and these costs became a tax write-off for the companies. It was a terrible economic decision, separating costs and incentives, and it was the single most disastrous step in US health care. * Lawyers weren't blind to these incentives either. Insurance companies especially have deep pockets, not to mention hospitals and even individual doctors. The US legal system encourages frivolous lawsuits more than most, from what I can tell; if in doubt, sue, especially for lawyers who aren't particularly busy, and pursuing frivolous lawsuits doesn't cost a whole lot compared to the potential fat rewards. * Politicians have no incentive to actually solve problems, only to look busy. * Bureaucrats are incentivized to grow their bureaucracies; private industry bureaucracies are kept in check by the danger of bankruptcy, but governments cannot go bankrupt, and growing their bureaucracies pleases politicians too, whether to brag about what they have created, or to rant about waste and loss which they don't want to actually fix. There is no feasible solution. One of the simplest remedies would be to shift the health insurance tax write off from employers to people. Life insurance, car insurance, home insurance, all are handled by individuals; it is ludicrous to think they can't handle health insurance too. But politicians despise this simple remedy precisely because it is simple; they don't want the public to realize how unnecessary politicians are.

[@Thewowhahahawow]

Should try to edit out voice over mistakes

[@Thewowhahahawow]

Other than that, great video

[@AntiAntagonist]

Visited Taiwan in 2007 and got a cavity filling for $10

[@laurencelikestopgun]

My dad told me Obama's ACA endgame was to eventually bring Taiwan style health care to the United States

[@kaixiang5390]

Obama was smart, he understood that he wasn’t going to implement a perfect system outright. It took over a decade for Taiwan to figure out NHI; it will take far longer for America since we have 10x as many people. But at least he started the process

[@nommindymple6241]

This video does not play. All I get is a black screen with a spinning circle.

[@4473021]

I think YT broke the video for some reason. I'm getting the same thing

[@kilercola]

Comparing Taiwanese to, for example german one, would be much more interesting, we all know that US system is flawed.

[@kmtforchina8916]

Although there are quality problems.

[@kaixiang5390]

I enjoyed Taiwan’s healthcare system while I was there, but adopting such a system would have to occur on a state level, not federal. The US is simply too large to implement systems from a small Island nation.