How does universal healthcare in Europe work?
October 12th, 2009 | 
Author: My professor today mentioned that most European countries have universal healthcare. This means that everyones healthcare is provided by the state, correct? How much more money do people pay in taxes in Europe than in the U.S.? It would have to be more since their healthcare is covered, right?
I am English and now live in California. Like most people I thought that there was a huge tax burden in Britain, but after coming here I now think that’s not the case.We pay two forms of tax from our wages:Income tax and National insurance. Your income tax is tax like everywhere else, national insurance pays for your pension and healthcare. I have lived in England all my life up till now and I will fiercely defend our healthcare system, the NHS (national health service). In thanks largely to the effort of our heroic doctors and nurses (and all other staff) the NHS survives….the healthcare is nothing like as bad as people make out, and there are no long waiting lists anymore (now if you’re waiting more than six months for routine surgery they’ll send you abroad to have it done, paid for of course). No-one pays anything for medical care and the one reason it’s under stress (As a healthcare proffesional I know this from experience) is the fact that something built as a national health service is used as a world health service. People come to the UK from all over Europe to take advantage of the NHS and from all over the world. I would like to see treatment restricted to citizens/people who have paid at least 5 years national insurance contributions but at the same time I would never ever want to see anyone, citizen or not, turned away or denied medical care because of money. I’m fortunate enough to be able to afford health insurance in the US but the amount hospitals/doctors charge is disgusting and I don’t really understand why people are so opposed to universal health care, can you really put a price on life?
By the way income tax is 20% of anything you earn over about 5 and a half thouse pounds ($11k) and national insurance is 11% of anything you earn over 84pounds a week ($160) And people have the option of private Healthcare in england too if they want to pay for it
Posted in Healthcare
Europe is ate up in taxes. England has the worse tax burden on the planet. Their health care is mediocre at best. Our may not be cheap, but its the best in the world, and nobody comes close.
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It varies greatly from country to country. The higher taxes are reflected in things like lower home ownership and less job availability.
People who advocate a single universal program in America will often cite Europe, but they don’t mention that each European country (state) has its own plans in competition with each other (and some have no universal coverage), that they have varying degrees of success, and that in some cases the government straight up decides who is ‘unfit’ for medical care (UK is real bad about this).
If we have 40 million uninsured now and implemented a "universal" system like the English that denies treatment to smokers and overweight people, we would end up with about 135 million uninsured.
France has a really good system in that they have good coverage and health stats without spending too much money per person. Again, the part they won’t tell you is that they achieved this by virtually eliminating lawsuits against doctors. By JUST fixing that legal liability in America, we would have gone a long way to improving the cost/return ration of American health-care without spending a penny.
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Actually, Germany for instance pays $2700 per person per year, where here in the USA it cost $6800. Universal health care is cheaper, because people get preventive care, which costs much less then getting really sick. I wish, people would get better info, before they make up their mind.
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I am English and now live in California. Like most people I thought that there was a huge tax burden in Britain, but after coming here I now think that’s not the case.We pay two forms of tax from our wages:Income tax and National insurance. Your income tax is tax like everywhere else, national insurance pays for your pension and healthcare. I have lived in England all my life up till now and I will fiercely defend our healthcare system, the NHS (national health service). In thanks largely to the effort of our heroic doctors and nurses (and all other staff) the NHS survives….the healthcare is nothing like as bad as people make out, and there are no long waiting lists anymore (now if you’re waiting more than six months for routine surgery they’ll send you abroad to have it done, paid for of course). No-one pays anything for medical care and the one reason it’s under stress (As a healthcare proffesional I know this from experience) is the fact that something built as a national health service is used as a world health service. People come to the UK from all over Europe to take advantage of the NHS and from all over the world. I would like to see treatment restricted to citizens/people who have paid at least 5 years national insurance contributions but at the same time I would never ever want to see anyone, citizen or not, turned away or denied medical care because of money. I’m fortunate enough to be able to afford health insurance in the US but the amount hospitals/doctors charge is disgusting and I don’t really understand why people are so opposed to universal health care, can you really put a price on life?
By the way income tax is 20% of anything you earn over about 5 and a half thouse pounds ($11k) and national insurance is 11% of anything you earn over 84pounds a week ($160) And people have the option of private healthcare in england too if they want to pay for it
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It doesn’t work at all. They must buy private supplemental insurance for big money, and wait for years for treatment. It sucks, just ask the common people in Europe. Don’t listen to the propaganda.
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