I think research is a good idea. On 11/13/07, Bruce Sorge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Speaking of taxes, Europeans pay more in taxes - an average of about 20% > more - than us, which I think is how they are able to afford to have the > government pay for most or all of their health care. > > And are you saying that we need to model our health care after these > countries? You know that all is not rosy with them. > For instance, I read sometime ago in Business Week, I believe, that > Britain has a lot of problem with their NHS, and France "appears" to be > doing well. Let's look at the French model. > > On the plus side, France appears to have a lot of success with theirs, > but you need to look deeper into it. The nice thing is that their > government picks up the tab if you are out of work. And they get to > choose their hospital and doctor which we do as well. Now the way that > they can do this is they enforce price controls, which we would have do > here. They use a national fee schedule. But, their doctors can charge > extra, and I believe that although less than half do, they can and do > charge extra. I think it is somewhere around $50.00 extra though, so > that is not too bad. And French doctors earn far less than our US > counterparts, somewhere around one third less. So from what I am > reading, we would have to raise taxes to make this happen. Raising taxes > is the same as cutting salary except that the government gets the money > rather than the company. That will be a hard sell for Americans, > especially American's who can afford quality health care. > > On the negative, we know that France pays more in taxes than we do (and > works about 12 hours less a week than we do, which is actually a plus), > and those extra taxes help fund their health care, along with private > funding. So the employee is contributing as is the company. And about > 90% of the population buys some sort of supplementary health care (like > AFLAC here in the US) to cover things that are not covered in their > basic package. France is also having a similar issue that we are. Rising > costs and an aging population are making it a struggle for France to > sustain this. This is causing their deficit to worsen faster than past > projections have predicted. > > A question though. Is France's health care universal across the board? > For instance, do illegal immigrants get access to health care the same > as tax paying citizens? This is a small part of what is creating higher > health care costs for us. That along with frivolous law suits that are > jacking malpractice premiums ever skyward and the luxurious lifestyles > that they are being accustomed to, as well as the rising cost of getting > a medical degree in the first place, and also people who cannot afford > health care coverage, but can still be seen for a real life emergency > anyway. So a lot needs to be done, not just spewing 'government provided > health care!!'. > > I am sure we can find stats on these other so called "models of > successful health care", but the fact is, while we do need to do > something with our totally dysfunctional health care system, we need to > seriously examine the pros and cons of government sponsored health care. > If the powers that be can create a viable and sustainable model for > this, I am on board, even if it does mean paying a little more in taxes. > > Finally, I know that we have people from all over the world on this > list. I would be interested to hear how their health care is compared to > ours. > > Bruce > > > Larry Lyons wrote: > > > > You mean making the problem worse than the systems like Britian, France, > > Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Canada have? Where the per capita costs > > are typically less than half of what it costs here, and where the overall > > wellness of the population is higher? > > > > All those countries have a government sponsored medical system. With some > > you pay a copay others cover everything out of general taxes. > > > > > > > >
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade to ColdFusion 8 and integrate with Adobe Flex http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJP Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:246328 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
