- Thread starter
- #21
Curious to see how the House Freedom Caucus affects the debt ceiling debate...
Vote: Best Healthcare Option
- Thread starter Justin Bilyj
- Start date
Curious to see how the House Freedom Caucus affects the debt ceiling debate...
I'm not trying to get political and I do wish people would not bring up Venezuela when you can bring up places like Canada, Norway - while most of Europe to a great extent, as well as fast developing economy's like India. Let's not forget Japan has had a socialized medicine and Welfare structure for some time.
Like any system it depends on the history, the economy, geography and 1001 other things to make a country run "right." America itself has a variety of socialist programs in place as well and they are called Medicare, the Highway system, public education, libraries, the Military and it goes on and on.
But to answer the original question. Remember what happened when airlines were deregulated? I do, and that's one of the reasons your paying $50 for luggage today.
My point is that you can't simply quote a meme.
Need to post link to details. Many things seem good at first. Stock broker friend talks about one mutual fund that was touted to his client by a competitor. It had higher returns & was named "North American Income Fund".
Wonderfully high returns were generated by............Mexican junk bonds - until the peso was devalued then return was negative. Don't worry. The only one losing was the investor. The broker made a nice commission.
- Thread starter
- #24
I'm not trying to get political and I do wish people would not bring up Venezuela when you can bring up places like Canada, Norway - while most of Europe to a great extent, as well as fast developing economy's like India. Let's not forget Japan has had a socialized medicine and Welfare structure for some time.
Like any system it depends on the history, the economy, geography and 1001 other things to make a country run "right." America itself has a variety of socialist programs in place as well and they are called Medicare, the Highway system, public education, libraries, the Military and it goes on and on.
But to answer the original question. Remember what happened when airlines were deregulated? I do, and that's one of the reasons your paying $50 for luggage today.
My point is that you can't simply quote a meme.
Norway's economy was bloated and leveraged on $200 barrel of oil, which is now breaking their economy apart.
Here's a nice blog post about the misconceptions about Norway healthcare
There is a misconception that healthcare is free in Norway. Not quite. The only people who get absolutely free healthcare are those under 16 and those who are pregnant (and that is only for pregnancy related healthcare!). The rest of us has to pay up to a NOK 2040 cap per individual a year. Those who require physiotherapy, special forms of dental care and rehabilitation are also required to pay another NOK 2620 cap on top of the regular cap. That means every individual has to pay for all their doctors appointments and specialist appointments, such as gynecologists, until they have paid all the excess. You have to pay for the doctors time, the instruments used, even the bandages. Like any insurance, the Norwegian National Insurance requires people to pay an excess. The National Healthcare does not include any regular dental care. This applies to ALL residents in Norway – Norwegians and Internationals. On top everyone also has to pay higher taxes to cover healthcare costs for the country. All non-residents have to pay the expensive charges whether pregnant, under 16, or not. After you have paid your NOK2600 or NOK 4660 excess you can get a ‘exemption card’ that allows you to get the rest of your healthcare for free only for the rest of the year. For prescriptions, certain people qualify for medication on a so called ‘blue prescription’, which allows them to only pay an excess of NOK520 a year.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/oils-slump-threatens-norways-economy-1417721313
Same thing with Canada, they are greatly in trouble because they leveraged their spending on $200 oil.
So you picked two countries got boons from the oil glut of 2000's, doesn't sound like a recipe for long term stability.
Canada's economy is a disaster from low oil prices - Apr. 13, 2015
Real Estate Bubble: Canadian Housing Market Crash Coming in 2016
Trying to compare the US with 320 million people vs any other country, including Canada (35M), Australia (23M) and any of the European countries ranging from 82M (Germany) to Gibraltar (29k) is there is no comparison. Canada doesn't have one plan, it has 10.
The tax structure is completely different in most (all?) of Europe as well due to VAT which we don't have here but the Dims want to add it on top of our other taxes, not replacing other forms of revenue.
If Americans were willing to pay $20/gallon for gasoline and $7 for a Big Mac we could have "free" everything like they do.
I assume poor people in those countries do not drive cars or eat Big Macs, but I could be wrong.
The tax structure is completely different in most (all?) of Europe as well due to VAT which we don't have here but the Dims want to add it on top of our other taxes, not replacing other forms of revenue.
If Americans were willing to pay $20/gallon for gasoline and $7 for a Big Mac we could have "free" everything like they do.
I assume poor people in those countries do not drive cars or eat Big Macs, but I could be wrong.
- 185
Sure. What I like about the Israeli system is it is dependent on the free market to produce the best coverage and rewards people with better coverage if they work for it, while ensuring everybody has a minimum coverage and everybody pays something.
Overview of Israeli Healthcare System & Insurance | Nefesh B'Nefesh
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Israel
This is the best straight forward option, in my opinion. And, we can eliminate all other government health plans - Medicare Medicaid CHIP, retirement plans both state and federal and it will decouple coverage from your job.
Plus it's cheaper and has better outcomes.
Edit: it would not replace the VA. Veterans would still need their own health system as they have health issues uncommon to the general population.
- 6,994
I read the link, but since the fees page is in Hebrew, it doesn't really tell us anything you haven't already stated.
What does the basic coverage actually cover? How is it paid for? How does it lower over-utilization?
- 6,994
No . .
- 185
All very good questions. They tax income to finance and set a minimum "basket of coverages". But people pay for increased coverages and out of pocket copay a, coinsurances, etc. Over utilization I'm not sure about, but I'm sure it is something they deal with. But what's is important to remember is that you can upgrade your coverage based on your needs.
The link below is a comprehensive analyses of the Israeli system and comparison to our system.
http://brookdale.jdc.org.il/_Uploads/PublicationsFiles/130-10-Healthcare-US-Israel-1-REP-ENG.pdf
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