Healthcare in Jordan

[Ibrahim90]

Allrighty then: I said I'd reply here to Shane, since it got too long on youtube, and we can always link here. Anyways:

1-about costs in Jordan:

[spoiler]IIRC, the 1/10 price deal was in India, not Jordan. Jordan's healthcare is cheaper than in the US--I reckon anywhere from half to fifth of the US in terms of costs, but not that cheap (God, I wish it were--for the sake of the people. we'll get to that.[/spoiler]

2-What Jordan's healthcare is like:

[spoiler]
OK, remember what I said about how I could waltz into the Private clinics? There's a a reason why I specified "private". See, almost every good things you hear about Jordan's Healthcare system are based on the Private system there. The full story is, as is so typical of the Arab world, a bit of a mess:

see, like most Arab countries, Jordan has what is called a "two-tier" system: basically, if you want a summary of most Arab countries, that means in effect, that the Private and Public sectors coexist, often assuming different niches, like some sort of healthcare food chain

the reason for this strange system is largely cultural. you see, being a (surprisingly) civilized people, Arabs traditionally don't believe the profit motive is a bad thing in and of itself: Wealth is seen as a gift from God, so help yourself wisely and thank the maker (I'll leave you to figure out who introduced the idea). This applies to medicine as in any other field--probably more so, since in Islam, saving a life is like saving humanity (so doctors deserve good money and to run their business).

On the other hand, there is a belief that Government (and This is a pre-Islamic belief--though Islam didn't help here...to put it mildly), has a responsibility to look after the poor. While most people on the planet have this misguided notion, It's worth pointing out that the reasons are a little different, and have to do with people's attitude to government in general--this part would require a whole other post or even a thread.  Naturally, Not being the utter retards the Swedes and the British have been, people figured that a private system is good news and wanted to let it do its thing, but also wanted to "balance" this with the other contradictory attitude. yeah, they tried to have it both ways. Well, got to give us credit for not outright blaming the free-market.

Anyways, what this means here: In Jordan's case, The Public healthcare is, by any standards...abysmal (OK, Arab World and the Congo aside). And if that didn't help, it is geographically centralized (in Amman), and patchy on top of that. The result is that a family in one place can have several public and private coverages--even the world class ones, while the neighboring one might as well live in the Middle of Africa, having no real coverage or access to medicine. One (comical) result of this is that according to official figures from 2009 (quoted in an article below), 80% are insured, yet someone, 25% are uninsured. let that sink in. Even those insured will find access to medicine a bit...difficult, unless they have a comfortable life.

see, being poor (i.e. being a typical Arab country), Jordan has little money to go around--the last PPP I heard of was ~$6000 per annum. Even with the Cheaper healthcare, one of the results is that medicine can be frightfully burdensome to obtain for a family, in many Arab countries--Jordan included, families on average can expect to spend 35% of their yearly income on medicine. To give you and idea of how bad that really is: to treat a kid with antibiotics for pneumonia? a month's wages. Cancer? well, let's just say the family will have to get good at filing bankruptcy forms...

And keep in Mind, even with that, Jordan still has the best healthcare system in the Near East hands down--Israel is the only country of similar ability in this field. Which I think should really serve to highlight just what things are like back home throughout ALL of the Arab world. If Jordan is (somehow) doing great overall with a healthcare system that sucks, imagine a place like Egypt, or Syria. the Arab spring's grievances become all the starker.

As to the private sector: it is relatively unregulated, at least compared to the US, with a private association (or series of such), tending to give the doctors a means of self regulating, and a tendency towards competitiveness in pricing and services. Many are trained in the US, understand English perfectly, and have access to the latest research (which they also partake in). The sector is, in terms of facilities size, about the same as the Public health sector, but is able to handle higher level care (in contrast, the Public sector is largely confined to basic health). This disparity in ability means that if you have money, you will be able to afford 1st class treatment for a reasonable price (by western Standards). If you're one of the Urban poor? though shit. bear in Mind, Cancer is a very common problem over there (inbreeding and pollution being the main reasons). And since poor people are more likely to live in polluted areas and to inbreed...
[/spoiler]

Overall, not a pretty picture. But in the context of the Arab world, it's a monumental achievement. And believe it or not, the system somehow (barely) works: life expectancy there is almost as high as in Israel (both are higher than in the US and Europe), and most people get running water and are immunized (heck, we're better about it than in the US). And as bad as they are, the Public hospitals are still the best in the Arab World, even though Jordan is only average by Arab Standards in Economics.

As to why it got this far? probably because of a trend towards privatization begun in the 1990's, as a response to Jordan's economic collapse around that time. This has lead to the large private sector for medicine in comparison to the rest of the Arab world, and the nature of this private sector is what gives it the quality to compete internationally with distinction. That and compared to policy makers in Europe and the Near East (or the US), people there aren't entirely stupid, though they can't quite get themselves to just admit that the Free market is the only way to go, and trying to have it both ways is just comical and makes the Israelis think we're stupid or something. the second article I attach is the perfect example of this: goes round in a circle, and then shoots himself in the foot. Again, at least give the guy some credit: he's honest enough to admit government fucked this one up:

EDIT: just in case anyone asks: no, Jordan doesn't have serious waiting list problems with regards to medicine--last I heard anyways, and even if it did, this would just apply to the public sector. it's more like the US here.

the 2009article: http://www.ispor.org/news/articles/July09/HCE.asp

http://jordantimes.com/jordans-healthcare-system