Paying for those medical bills may now become easier! President-elect Obama has some proposals for health care reform that may provide for a large majority of the currently uninsured Americans. However, in light of the recent financial crisis, effective health care reform seems impossible. With that in mind, is universal health care even possible in the United States?

Many countries worldwide, especially in Europe and Asia, already have implemented universal health care systems. Many people are very happy with the health coverage that they receive. Rarely do citizens ever go bankrupt or neglect to go see a doctor because of the expensive health costs.

There are four different models of health care that many industrialized, wealthy countries follow: the Beveridge Model, the Bismarck Model, the National Health Insurance Model, and the out-of-pocket model. All these models exhibit regulated health care with a lot of government control whether it be on the entire system itself, on health costs, or both . Looking closely at these models, one can infer that there’s a huge amount of government spending to support them. In Taiwan, which uses the National Health Insurance Model, hospitals are going bankrupt and the government spends more to keep the hospitals functioning. Thus, although many people may be happy, the government is not.