Health Care in other countries as examples that it works

Greetings from germany
I just saw the whole O´Reilly vs John Stewart debate "the rumble 2012".
www.youtube.com...
at 1.08


I got to say: this is how a presidential debate should work but of course without the jokes. They were both in a good shape.
But one thing got me thinking because even john stewart did not react to that statement.
O Reilly said at one point : "look at the uk and other countries where healthcare is managed by the government, they come to the us for operations. It does not work".
haaa!!! My god. That is soooo false.
He does not seem to know that the uk and germany and other countries in europe have a much better medical system than the us. And that NO ONE goes to america for operations (despite plastic surgery where the us has some experts) ....How does he even come to that idea.

I normally dont like michael moore, but watch his documentary "Sicko" to understand a little bit about other systems.
Its really shocking to me that in this age people still fall for that "anti socialistic-schock-treatment"..
It seems really to be a killer argument in the us. But its weak ,weak ,weak.

Everyone i know who comes from other countries praises the healthsystem in germany. I was sick very often and had 4 complex operations. I never had to pay for it and i am damn fine.

Its strange that people in america still think all other systems did not work. In fact in europe it is well known that even CUBA has a better medical system than You have.

This american ignorance is just childish! ("THE BEESt country in the world blah..the best country in the world in terms of freedom and stability is by the sweden. But i understand that you would not believe a european guy)

I like my countries health care, NHS. Only the toffs try change it and complain about it. Personally, if I was runnign the country, I'd be making more people pursue a career in Health Care, such as been a Doctor or a Nurse etc, so that the waiting lists for the needy are not as long as they are. We're under staffed, under budgeted and nobody is really bringing any new reforms to the table. We employ foreign doctors and nurses and in effect, it causes bad practice. But yeah, our health care is o.k - Could be better, but this is just idleness from the people in power

I don't understand why people complain about Obama care, w/e its called - This is, for me, is the one good thing that Obama has done for that country. Instead of the Ambulance staff checking you're pockets whilst you're dying on the floor, looking for insurance before they treat you - You all now can be treated, equally - not depending on how much money you have.

If theirs one thing that justifies my Tax, then thats me been able to pay for peoples well-being.

reply to post by kauskau

schock-treatment".

lol your germanness is showing, sorry had to point it out. Sehr schlecht English!



As a sports fan, an example comes to mind that fits your argument.

Now, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that Urlacher traveled to Europe during the offseason and underwent the same procedure that Kobe Bryant and Alex Rodriguez had in order to help with knee issues.

The Tribune reports that Urlacher paid for the procedure, while another said the 34-year-old linebacker met with "that famous doctor everybody goes to."

That doctor would be Peter Wehling, based in Germany, who developed the Regenokine procedure, which has not been approved in the U.S. by the FDA. The Tribune ran a graphic that explains the procedure.

content.usatoday.com...
The athletes mentioned in this article are multi, multi millionaires who can afford any type of health care anywhere. They are all nearing the end of their career, struggling with knee problems, and have chosen to have a procedure done in Germany. All with successful results.

As an example, it really draws no conclusions about the merits of nationalized health care. But it does show that European medical treatment is on par or superior in some areas.


Also of note off the top of my head on this, is that America spends something like 7-8% of GDP on health care which is pretty far ahead of the second place nation on that list.



ETA: That 7-8 number I remembered is actually the thousands spent per capita in the US, so it was wrong. The
%GDP number is 16, as of 2007. I'm sure more up to date stats are out there.

-In 2007, the total spending for health care accounted for 16% of the country’s GDP, the highest share among the OECD and almost double the OECD average

-On a per capita basis also the U.S. spent the highest with a total of $7,290 which is two-and-half times the OECD average

-The public share of health care expenditure in the USA (45%) is less than any other OECD country

seekingalpha.com...

Thank God for the NHS. Sure it has it's problems although most are due to right wing government tinkering at the edges to try and get some public money flowing to private health industry (trickle will flood once the money goes via GP's). Most western government have implemented some form of public health care system for one very good reason : It is the morally correct choice for a civilised society....oh and it works !!! What it does not do is make health care professionals rich at the expense of the poor or sick. You have to go to the US for that!

I've said this before on different subjects : It only takes one story to make a headline. Sure we get the headlines joe blogs goes to the US for an operation for his blah blah. But those are rare occurances for rare conditions almost always involving a new procedure which is not yet allowed under the NHS. There are 4.2 million operations a year carried out in NHS hospitals all over the country and guess what (US readers) not single penny is spent one single patient on their care.........ya freaking hoo.

We pay for it with an insurance scheme called "national Insurance" which is a flat rate paid by tax payers. No means testing, no DNA testing, no excess claim limits, no pre-condition testing etc etc Exactly how insurance should be ironically enough.

I'm an atheist but I know the US is much more religious than us over here but even I know that Jesus Christ never limited his compassion or healing based on the ability to pay. That is plain immoral.