Why Singapore's health care system beats ObamaCare

Singapore's health care system is entirely different than anything the Democrats are trying to do. Singapore's health care system is one libertarians should love, because people there pay for their own health care out of their own pocket. Singapore's health care system is basically a system of health savings accounts for everyone, combined with catastrophic (high-deductible) health insurance. There is also free health care for the poor, analogous to Medicaid in the U.S.

Why is Singapore's health care system superior to ObamaCare? Let's compare Singapore to the Democratic Party ideal (Western Europe and Canada).

Singaporeans live longer than people in the Western European countries whose health care systems the Democrats want to copy:


Singapore's health care system costs less than those in the Western European countries that the Democrats want to copy:


Government spending on health care is lower in Singapore than in the U.S. This is something the small-government crowd should love and the ObamaCare crowd should hate:


While some Democrats are trying to abolish health savings accounts in the U.S. (the Republicans introduced them a few years ago, but they are rarely used), Singapore is evidence that universal health savings accounts are superior to any kind of "public option" or "single payer system".

The reason health savings accounts are so successful is because they get supply and demand working the way they should. This doesn't occur when someone else (e.g. an insurance company or the government) pays the bill.

It is a false choice to believe that the only health care options we have are either big-government or the status quo. Universal health savings accounts provide a third alternative.

Data source.

To learn more about Singapore's health care system, click here.

Update: The Washington Post has an article with more details about the Singaporean health care system. Also according to Wikipedia, "Singapore was ranked 6th in the World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems in the year 2000."