A lot of Europeans in the lower taxpaying tiers who love to shit on Americans (especially when the American healthcare system has been getting so much coverage the past decade).
Imagine, if you will, a 50-year-old woman on the dole (she's paid a monthly sum by the government). In Germany, for instance, this is only paid if she can prove that she applied, and continues to apply for work/seek employment.
It's a bit of a mad circle - she doesn't want work, because she has a comfortable, if meagre life. Of course she dutifully applies for employment every month, and occasionally lands an interview.
She's been out of work for so long though, that's she's no longer employable. She's too old for manual labour, cannot type, doesn't do Internet. And so no one will have her.
It's not ideal for someone expecting to get out what they put into the system, but it's a social safety net that's better than forcing people out onto the street. Will all the problems that brings.
And yes, the 50-year-old gets "free" healthcare. Which I contribute to, from my hard work. And I think this system among the best on the planet.
I wish more people had that attitude.
Instead, in the US, we have people actively making their own lives worse because they don't want to give others things they don't believe they "deserve".
If taking more out of my paycheck would get all the homeless people off the streets, I would happily do that. I personally believe that everyone has a right to housing, but even if I didn't care about people, I'd be ok with it because getting homeless people off the streets makes my life better too.
Ensuring that people aren't insecure about housing and food translates to lower crime rates and safer neighborhoods.
It makes me genuinely angry that anti-welfare people don't get this, and actively lobby against their own interest. I'm sure there are some people who just believe that welfare programs don't work, and are against them on those grounds, but most of the rhetoric I hear seems to be around not giving people things they haven't worked for and don't deserve.
Paying taxes to treat people humanely and with dignity is a good option because when people are desperate, riots and violence are not far away.
And if your thoughts are to push people to that extreme so you can be violent against them, then it is you who are the lesser person.
now, we are suckers for people giving us promises that they cant seem to keep. That's a different story.
You have deep issues. No thinking thinks anything is free. Its free as in I can walk in get treated and walk out without having a cent or anyone asking about my credit details. The difference is in the quality of care as gov run hospitals have much tighter budget constraints and can't treat patients with as much delicacy as private medical institutions.
Thanks for the personal attacks. Highly appreciated /s
> The difference is in the quality of care as gov run hospitals have much tighter budget constraints and can't treat patients with as much delicacy as private medical institutions.
Yet somehow places such as Singapore, Thailand and Japan manage to provide top notch healthcare even in government institutions, healthcare that is much better than most private European hospitals.
And yes, my point was exactly about how a not insignificant number of people in Europe seem to think that their healthcare comes for free (because they don't pay tax for a variety of reasons).
This slur of outright idiocy via economic illiteracy is fiction, and applying slurs to people from a specific region on the basis of their economic circumstances is bigotry 101, so the personal admonishment above is hardly surprising.
But the rest of my points still stand.
To say nothing of how maddening it is to have to change doctors every time we change jobs, or to lose coverage for certain conditions when we change jobs, or to have to perfectly time certain life events such as childbirth or pregnancy to either before or after we change jobs, or to make sure we don't get sick during the probationary period while we're changing jobs, and so on.
My issue is with people who pay nil significant taxes in Europe gloating ignorantly about how European Healthcare is free, and won't stop shitting on American Healthcare. Yeah, your healthcare is cheaper than the US but it isn't free. There is a whole bunch of middle class folks and upper class folks paying for it. And I'm not even supporting the American model.
What % of the general population do you think can actually come close to estimate the real cost of their complete annual health care premium cost (let alone actual procedures or services like emergencies)?
And what subset of that do you think would be incredibly shocked at the actual price ?