财富杂志 新加坡如何做到超低价优质医疗服务?(2)（在线收听）

Sean Masaki Flynn's extraordinarily important—and, so far, largely ignored—

肖恩·马萨基·弗林尤为重要的——而且，到目前为止，很大程度上被忽视了的——

book The Cure That Works (Regnery, $28.99) gives the answers in straightforward prose.

书籍《The Cure That Works 》（莱格尼里出版公司出版，售价28.99美元）以简单直白的散文形式给出了答案。

You'll be rubbing your eyes in disbelief: Health care can indeed be inexpensive, first-rate and easily accessible to everyone.

你将会难以置信地揉眼睛：医疗确实可以便宜又优质，且人人都能轻易享有。

The bottom line: Capitalism with safety nets works! Singapore has the most free-market-oriented medical system anywhere.

最主要的是：拥有安全保障的资本主义起了作用！新加坡拥有世界上最具自由市场导向性的医疗体系。

The U.S., in contrast, has a third-party system—providers, patients and insurers/government.

相比之下，美国是一个三方体系——医疗提供方、病人以及保险公司/政府。

And it's the third parties that are the drivers here. Hospitals, for instance,

且第三方是这里的驱动者。例如，医院

know their revenues depend more on how well they negotiate with insurers than on how well they satisfy patients.

知道他们的收入更多的取决于他们与保险公司谈判的好坏，而不是病人的满意程度。

This leads to the utterly strange situation of prices almost never being posted!?

这导致了一个非常奇怪的局面——价格几乎从未被公开过！

In Singapore the dynamic is a two-party system. The patient is in charge, just as the consumer is in almost every other market.

在新加坡，医疗动力是一个两方体系。病人说了算，就像几乎所有其他市场的消费者一样。

Essentially, all workers pay a chunk of their salary into the equivalent of a health savings account.

从本质上说，所有员工都将他们工资的一部分存入相当于健康储蓄账户的账户里。

But they—not the government—own the assets. From that account an employee pays premiums for insurance

但他们——不是政府——拥有这些资产。员工从这个账户拿钱

to cover catastrophically expensive medical conditions as well as routine medical expenses.

支付高额的医疗保险费，以及常规医疗支出。

What isn't spent remains in the account and grows. Because most people don't suffer from chronic conditions,

没花完的钱还在这个账户里，且继续增长。因为大部分人都没有慢性疾病，

the overall value of these accounts increases, and they now equal nearly four and a half years' worth of the country's total yearly medical outlays.

这些账户的总体价值增长，并且现在其价值几乎相当于该国近四年半的年度医疗支出总额。

Another crucial factor in Singapore's system: All health care providers, including pharmacies, must post the prices of everything.

新加坡这一体系的另一个关键因素：所有卫生保健提供者，包括药房，都必须公开所有价目。

No hidden $25 charge for a Tylenol pill! Bills are simple so that the customer understands exactly what he or she is being charged for.

泰诺药片中没有隐藏的25美元费用！账单很简单，所以顾客们能够清楚了解他或她的钱花在了哪些地方。

Hospitals and clinics compete for a patient's business; thus, they provide good service at low cost.

医院和诊所为了病人的生意竞争；因此，他们以低价提供优质服务。

If you want a fancy hospital room, you'll pay extra; if you want a bare-bones one,

如果你想住豪华病房，你得付额外的钱；如果你要住普通病房，

where you're in a space resembling an army barracks with plenty of other patients, you'll save money.

一个类似军队营房一样的空间，和其他病人同住，你就能省钱。

But what's amazing is that regardless of your choice, the care is the same! There's no distinction in the quality of care because of income.

但令人惊讶的是，不管你选择住哪一种，对你的护理都是一样的！因为收入的关系，护理质量没有区别。

Contrast this pricing transparency with what we have in the U.S.

将这种价格透明度与美国的进行对比。

Flynn rightly compares our situation with a Third World bazaar, where you haggle with a merchant for an item.

弗林直接将我们的情况比作一个第三世界的集市，在那里你为了一件商品而和商人讨价还价。

It's hard to make price comparisons with other merchants without spending an inordinate amount of time.

如果不浪费大量的时间，就很难与其他商家进行价格比较。