Well, the American argument - for what's it's worth, and not much I'm on a Union Health Plan that's very good - is that I'm going to be paying for health care for 20-30 years before I really need it.  So why do it?

Quote from: tekla on June 29, 2009, 02:32:33 PM
Well, the American argument - for what's it's worth, and not much I'm on a Union Health Plan that's very good - is that I'm going to be paying for health care for 20-30 years before I really need it.  So why do it?

Well, from the european argument - for what's it's worth, is that tomorrow morning, you might step on a bar of soap in the shower at the gym, fall flat on your back, and crack your skull. A textbook example of "->-bleeped-<- happens". If you're not insured, or your insurance won't cover sports related injuries, than a free health care system would come in handy. Unless your able to file a lawsuit against the owner of soap...

In the end, if I'm to tryand see both sides of the argument, I'd guess we'd have to look at each country's mentality. Americans seem to be quite happy with their system, with insurance, poor coverage, and everything else that's been mentioned earlier. On the other side of the coin, we have canadians and most europeans, who are just as happy paying taxes that amercians probably would never allow. It's what we're used to, and it's  the system we seem to prefer.

But, in case i get hit by a car driven by a bum with no insurance or money, I'd sure appreciate getting the best care available, without having to worry about who's going to pay for it...

Oh, like almost everything else in America, our health care system has some stuff that makes it world class, and other stuff that makes it, like, kinda funky.  For the people it works for, it works great.  For others, not so much.

There seems to be a whole lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) thrown into the socialized medicine debate. The NHS system here in the UK is far from perfect but I'm very glad it exists - pretty much every member of my family has been helped by it at some point, in particular my daughter who was born with a severe visual impairment.

In terms of taxation, when I compare overall cost of living and taxation between my US colleagues and folks here, there doesn't seem to be a drastic difference in overall monthly contributions.