It seems as though it has been going on forever and the discussion, including the rather nasty disagreements, about healthcare reform continue. Everyone agrees that the U.S. healthcare insurance system is broken, but very few agree on the repairs.

In this country, some presidents, primarily Democrats, have been trying to fix the cracks for years. President Clinton tried and failed. President Obama has found it to be a Herculean task and his effort has seriously affected his approval rating. Let’s face it; this is a thorny issue, not made easier by the fear tactics employed by the rightwing.

If it is any consolation, it is not a simple matter in Poland, either. The current coalition, led by the Civic Platform (PO) party, is having its efforts at reform hampered, as well, although the group’s solutions are quite different from the American situation.

While the Obama Administration is attempting to solve problems with a governmental solution, Donald Tusk’s government is trying to bring more market-based reform into the system.

The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other nation, but millions of Americans do not have even basic care. While the right does its best to scare the citizenry away from meaningful change in that regard, public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid have exceptionally high satisfaction rates from its users.

The Polish situation is almost the reverse. Poland spends less on healthcare than almost any nation in Europe, but manages to cover everyone. Unfortunately, though, it has a swollen bureaucracy, mediocre use of equipment and poor management.

When we observe other fields of general public interest, it is clear that a good mixture of public and private institutions, and solutions, work best. A leading Polish magazine recently came to exactly that same conclusion, pointing to education as a good example. So, asked the editors, why not adopt a similar philosophy when it comes to healthcare?

Despite screams from the oppositions, it is clear upon fair inspection, that both Tusk and Obama are each simply trying to accelerate the move toward private-public cooperation, rather than promoting a revolutionary change from one method to the other. Complete transformation to a private system in Poland is impossible and a overall switch to a public program is vastly unpopular in the U.S. The leaders of both countries are certainly wise enough to recognize those realities.

The Polish answer to the healthcare dilemma may well be that private companies should take over the management of many more public hospitals. Noting the obvious inability of private insurers to meet the needs of every member of the U.S. population, some sort of public solution must be adopted. For differing problems there are different answers, but both the U.S. and the Polish difficulties can be alleviated by devising acceptable levels of participation by private and public entities.

No plan will ever be totally satisfactory to everyone, but serious predicaments can give rise to a serious acceptance of compromise. We must hope that the citizenry, and the politicians, in each country have the wisdom and goodwill to adopt a suitable degree of conciliation. After all, your health may depend on it.