Quote from: Cindy on October 06, 2013, 05:06:03 AM
Ahh but most countries universal health care comes from compulsory contribution! I pay, I think 2.5% of my salary for 'free' health care. What is the difference?
Cindy,
Living in another country with "free" universal health care, I also pay 2,25% of my salary on health insurance but my employer pays 12,8% so the total contribution amounts to 15% of my employment costs.
To get a non-partisan view of the the whole subject, the Economist article I posted the link to is excellent. It is well worth noting that the remarkable inefficiency of the existing system in the U.S. means that health care costs as a % of national wealth are much higher there than in any other comparable country around the world. However as a large part of the US population has no idea how this is managed in other parts of the world and that there are huge vested interests in keeping them ignorant or even deliberately misinformed on the subject , you arrrive at the situation described in the article, an undoubtedly messy reform.
However, the "antis" have so far proposed nothing rather than maintaining a status quo which is still very expensive yet excludes millions from anything other than emergency coverage.
Mind boggling stuff for a neutral observer but, since politics in the US has become pretty mind boggling anyway, I guess there is little hope of any sort of reasoned debate on the subject any time soon.
Hugs
Donna
P.S. To those who are against the idea of healthy young people paying into a common pot that insures coverage for all when it is required, the basic principle behind any sort of insurance system, are you against insurance in general?