Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali BassMan
it does'nt work... Employers and employees pay enormous amount of money for everything from aspiran to operations.... More people go bankrupt due to hospital bills than everything else combined...You'd think that the world's richest nation would take care of it's citizens.
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Let me preface this by stating that I'm not making a value judgment here (aside from last few paragraphs)...I'm simply stating facts about differences in society around the world...these are generalizations, mind you....
The United States of America is a
capitalist nation. We pay significantly fewer dollars in taxes (personal income, corporate, lack of value-added
in most cases), and subsequently, do not have as many state-controlled institutions...eg, healthcare isn't free, Ecucation is more expensive (in many cases) we don't have 'national' companies that are government controlled, they are held by private owners or owned publically by stockholders.
Much of western Europe employs a "
welfare state" philosophy. Services like healthcare and other public services are in many cases provided by the government, funded by
higher tax rates.
In a nation like the United States, healthcare is
not viewed as a fundamental right of citizens...It is stated nowhere in the constitution... Americans may often-times open special health savings accounts (much like a 401k retirement plan..often tax-exempt) to help offset the higher cost of healthcare. Per the philosophy of capitalism, the
responsibility lies with the individual.
I'm not stating that either way is good or bad...I don't necessarily think that the US government
not providing healthcare for free for its citizens is because they simply "doesn't care about them" (by the way....the government is elected....by the
people), there are simply huge costs involved, and a myriad of issues with privatizing the healthcare industry.
Another similar point can be made about perscription drugs in the US...
Although in many cases they are expensive, there are reasons behind that. Of course, generic drugs are often available....however, the companies making the generic drugs
are not spending billions of dollars yearly to research new drugs. The drugs from big pharm aren't expensive to necessarily take advantage of consumers (any more than any other business), but to fund the often prohibitive costs of funding new drugs to cure new and existing illnesses.
Basically..my point is...there are often cultural, commercial, and more difficult explainations for why one government decides to subsidize something, another government something else...why goods may be more expensive (you'll find consumer goods to be
much cheaper in the US) in one country than another.
START, 'VALUE JUDGMENT'...feel free to disagree, throw rocks, fling personal insults
Bottom line, if you have the kind of career that would merit moving to the US, your employer will probably take care of the majority of your healthcare expenses..that isn't to say that you won't have to take any responsibility for some of your own healthcare costs, however. If you're a hard-working, career-oriented, educated individual, the US is the best place in the world to live and work...
In America, we try to give everyone a (somewhat) even level of opportunity, however,
WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THE OUTCOME...failures happen, but at least here you can pick yourself up and start over again...We can't guarantee that your
PARENTS (<----important) will teach you the value of education, that they'll instill in you a good work ethic, that they'll keep you from abusing drugs and alcohol...We don't view that as the responsibilty of the state.. We can guarantee that you will have access to public education, and some opportunity to be better than what your parents were. Not in any way stating that it will be
EASY OR GUARANTEED, but the opportunity is there...