By Joseph Q. Jarvis | Published: 3 August 2026
I recently returned from a vacation trip to Europe during which I interviewed several people about their health care experiences. None of them had ever heard of bankruptcy due to health care costs. No one in Europe has ever heard of anyone going without urgently needed care because they could not afford it. In some countries there are deductibles, but no deductible is beyond the financial capacity of the average working citizen. Other American health insurance gimmicks simply do not exist, such as limited provider panels, recission, surprise bills, or prior authorization. Beyond this, European healthcare is measurably better, with better outcomes and longer lives. Fashioning health policy around what is best for patients means better care and more simple health care financing—better, simpler care. And that leads to much less health care cost. Even the most expensive European health care system (Switzerland) costs 40% less than the cost of American health care.
Just as I returned home this past week, a large extended family I know (2 grandparents, 5 children with in-law spouses, and 22 grandchildren) gathered for a family reunion in the Wasatch mountains for 7 days. Just at the start of that week, one of the grandchildren suffered a displaced fracture of the radius (an arm bone) and a crack in the neighboring ulna. (See x-ray below). This grandchild and his siblings and parents are 2000 miles away from their home while on this family vacation, and therefore a similar distance away from where they purchase health insurance. While he was allowed to see an emergency room doctor for his injury with the insurance paying at least something, the family was informed that a visit to an orthopedic doctor away from home would not be covered. The ER doctor could not reduce the fracture himself and so recommended that he be evaluated by an orthopedic doctor. There is a possibility that an orthopedic surgeon could non-operatively reduce the fracture, set it well, cast it, and allow this family to continue their vacation without surgery. But the rules of insurance are such that this family is not allowed that option unless they are willing to risk paying for any surgery that might be required because it would be “out of network”.
This issue is not merely a matter of convenience for the family. Receiving definitive care for an injury at the time and place the injury occurs is an essential part of patient care. The health care system should serve the needs of the patient, first and foremost. The needs of the health insurance company should never be a consideration, much less the driving force of health care decisions. When anything displaces the needs of patients from first consideration, then the health system fails. It becomes more complicated, more expensive, and the quality of care suffers. Patients don’t thrive, their lives are shortened, and costs skyrocket. This is the essential difference between European and American health care. In Europe the needs of the patients come first. Not so in the United States, where profits matter more.
Which way of doing health care business do you prefer? Profiteering or patient care?
Learn more about this at View source at utahcares.health where you can also donate to the cause of reforming American health care. Don’t wait until your grandchild can’t get the care needed because an insurance company refuses to pay for urgent care. Act now. DONATE what you can. We must all join in this cause in order to succeed.
Many thanks.
Dr. Joseph Q. Jarvis is a public health physician, chair of the Utah Cares Political Issue Committee and author of several books, including The Purple World: Healing the Harm in American Health Care and What the Single Eye Sees: Faith, Hope, Charity, and the Pursuit of Discipleship.