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TreasureKY -> RE: I found It! I found it!! Where healthcare is a "Right" in the US... (5/14/2009 7:27:42 PM)
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ORIGINAL: philosophy
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ORIGINAL: TreasureKY
I just happen to see a poor track record on the part of the US government in managing anything.
...er.....that's a bit depressing isn't it?
Yes, it is.
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ORIGINAL: philosophy
As to the French system, a little research puts the Molinari Institute into a little context. They're not exactly unbiased either.
That may be true. However, similar sentiments can be found in numerous venues.
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ORIGINAL: philosophy
Even if we take at face value all the claims in the linked article about the French system.....it still provides decent health care for more people than the US system.
Those lucky enough to have decent insurance may do well, but nationalised systems treat everyone. There is a knock on for this into the broader society. A healthier population has incalculable benefits.
As I indicated above, I'm not enamored with our system; I know it has some serious problems. Unfortunately, it isn't up to me to figure out how to fix it. Nonetheless, I firmly believe that putting the government in charge isn't a good solution.
I have no doubt that the French system provides decent healthcare for most of population there. Of course, there are some caveats that go along with that system that seem to get left out of discussions like these.
Were you aware that over 90% of the people covered by Sécurité Sociale carry private supplemental insurance to help them cover the large co-payments (up to 40% of the cost of the visit/procedure) and to access higher quality providers? That's what makes the French system work so well... it's a 2 tier system. Thing is, the supplemental insurance isn't cheap... I just ran a couple of quotes tonight with one company, and the monthly cost for just me would be $170 USD per month. If we covered Firm and I, and our two teenagers, the cost would be $520 USD per month. This was just a standard plan... nothing fancy... with a 10% copayment and $1000 USD deductible.
Did you know that Sécurité Sociale is funded in large part by a payroll tax of nearly 19%? (Paid in large part by the employer.) This is on top of an income tax with rates of up to 40%. A person who grosses the equivalent of $33,000 USD, pays around $12,000 USD in income and CSG tax alone. This is not including any local taxes, of which there are many possibilities. For example, the French have their own version of the property tax, but it's not limited to simply the owner of a piece of property... there's a tax (taxe d'habitation) that must be paid by any occupant of a property and it's based on the value of the property.
(Just as a side note, if our hypothetical $33,000 per year earner above were in the US and opted for the insurance offered by his employer, his Federal income and FICA taxes would be around $7474 for the year and his health insurance would have amounted to around $3600 (just a ballpark average of $150 every two weeks for employee only... though all the companies I ever worked for it was much less). That comes close to $3000 less per year than what he pays in France for pretty much the same thing.)
Were you aware that while the French government sets a fee schedule for payment of services, doctors are free to charge whatever they like? And unlike most private insurance here in the US (with preferred provider networks where contracted prices are negotiated) patients there must pay any difference.
Anyway, these things don't make the French system bad. In many ways, it's every bit as good and sometimes better than what we have. However, it's not the healthcare utopia that some people like to claim it is.
Thing is, I still don't trust the government here to do any better running healthcare than they do most everything else.
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