This week I am in Lisbon taking part in the Portugal Executive Study Mission hosted by TPG International Health Academy. This group visits different countries twice per year to learn about best practices and challenges in other health care systems. The goal is to share and learn from each other, and bring ideas back that might improve how we deliver and finance care in the U.S.
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All health care delivery is local, but financing and R&D concerns are global
Learning from the Portuguese health care system
My main takeaway from Day 1: All health care delivery is local, but all health care R&D and financing issues are GLOBAL. Pharmaceuticals are a prime example of this. Regardless of how much governments, insurers or individuals pay for each drug–– and we already know these costs vary widely from place to place–– all local health care communities benefit tremendously from innovations in pharma R&D.
A second takeaway from my first day: While we are miles apart, and have our differences culturally, we share a common goal: quality outcomes with lower unit per annum health care cost per capita. Whether a single payer system, private payer system –or a hybrid of the two–everyone is having the same discussions about managing rising costs while still delivering high quality care for their citizens. A visit to Santa Maria Hospital—the largest in Portugal—brought home this country’s focus on quality and compassionate care for their patients…it was truly impressive to see.
From a pure economic perspective, Portugal ranks at #18 on the list of the most (and least) economically efficient health care markets in the world. The U.S. comes in at #54. Here’s the complete list from Bloomberg. More to come from Portugal in the days ahead.
TPG International Health Academy info here