Healthcare in Namor: Difference between revisions
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Namor formerly had a completely state-run health care system, but this changed in the NMR 2320s and NMR 2330s when it was largely privatized (now, over 60% of Namorese health care is owned by the private sector). Successive administrations have initiated programs whose main goal is to provide every citizen with affordable healthcare, especially to the rural poor.
History
When the Republic of Namor was first founded, Republican leaders listed healthcare as a "right, not a privilege," setting a milestone in the history of health in Namor (during the imperial era only the rich was able to afford top-quality healthcare). Double Fourth Revolution leader Jacob Cho promised to bring about a universal health care system, and his successor Jung To reaffirmed that promise, but it was not fulfilled due to internal strife and financial problems. During the Namorese Civil War and the Second Great War, the entire health industry was privatized and only the rich had access to good-quality healthcare while many in the lower and even middle classes found healthcare costs to be unaffordable.
Following the founding of the People's Republic, the ruling Liberationist Party tried to implement health care reforms and made some progress. Yunglang Antelope encouraged studies in the medical field to produce more doctors; at the same time he invited Namorese physicians working abroad to return to their home country. The party aimed for a set doctor-people ratio in a certain amount of time - a massive expansion occurred during the NMR 2290s; by NMR 2300 there was roughly 1 doctor per 50 people. During the Green Fever the expansion stopped, and instead the government encouraged segments of Namorese youth to replace doctors, some of whom lost their jobs due for being suspected counter-revolutionaries. The Green Youth Organization set up a "Revolutionary Doctors" program, where young people who were usually in their twenties or early thirties were given no more than five weeks of medical training before being sent throughout the country to serve as doctors. Abiding to Yunglang's principle of "costless health," the "Revolutionary Doctors" checked patients free of charge. It was reported that this program was a "great success" with the ratio being lowered to 1 doctor per 15 people in some regions, but it was later revealed that the program was more inefficient than portrayed - many of the doctors were inexperienced and the quality of the healthcare system dropped significantly. Some people avoided visiting GYO doctors and instead visited military hospitals or "secret clinics" where care was more satisfying.
When the Green Fever ended, the government acknowledged that the past decade saw a decline in the health care system, and worked to "restore order" in the system. Massive privatization went underway, and by the late NMR 2330s the state had less ownership over healthcare than the private sector, and the quality of healthcare drastically improved. But there were concerns about the affordability of health care, with studies showing that people in rural areas see healthcare as less affordable than do people in urban areas. To cope with this problem, in NMR 2354 the "Common Medical Care System (CMCS) Act" was passed with the backing of the Wolf administration and most political parties.
Common Medical Care System
The Common Medical Care System (Контонг Йибо) or the CMCS is the current national healthcare system. The system was designed to encourage the improvement of hospitals and clinics in the countryside while maintaining the quality of healthcare in urban areas. As of recently, 90% of Namor's rural population (527,238,461) has signed up for the CMCS. Under the CMCS, a person's annual cost for medical coverage is P60 (about $8.57). P25 is paid by the national government, P25 is paid by the district government and the remaining P10 is paid by the patient.
This scheme's coverage of a patient's bill depends on where the patient receives treatment. If a patient gets treatment in a small township/village-level clinic or hospital, it covers around 80%-90% of the patient's bill. If the patient visits a county-level hospital, the coverage is lowered to around 60-70%. If the patient needs more help in a hospital of a large city, the coverage falls to 30-40%, meaning that the patient will have to cover most of the cost him/herself.
In other parts of the country, especially autonomous republics, there are other forms of universal health coverage. In Shanpei and Txotai, two autonomous republics where there are many ethnic groups, medical care costs for ethnic minorities are completely covered by the government regardless of location (this is one of the few benefits the government grants to citizens of non-Kannei ethnicity).
Critics of the CMCS argue that health care is usually of poor quality in rural areas, and even if such a scheme was successfully implemented many people in rural areas would eventually flock to city hospitals anyway, where they would have to cover most of the costs by themselves. But proponents say this has already encouraged the quality of medical care to improve in rural areas, and also encourages the concept of "close care," where patients do not have to travel very far to get medical treatment.