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From the Guardian newspaper: Bernie Sanders unveils universal healthcare bill: 'We will win this struggle' - excerpt:
I write from France, in the European Union (EU). Where 735 million souls - living in 28 countries (so, demographically comparable to the US) - are covered by National HealthCare Insurance because it is a condition for joining the EU. That number (735M) is more than double the US-population, and far, far more than the percentage of Americans with bonafide low-cost HealthCare Insurance. (Note that I am not saying that National Health Coverage is 100% free, gratis and for nothing throughout the EU. Some EU-countries do have private insurance that compensates the National Healthcare coverage - but that family insurance costs rarely more than 150/200€ a month - the dollar and euro being at about parity nowadays).
The average GP in the US earns more than $200K per year. (Verify that fact by looking it up at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Code 29-1060, "Physicians & Surgeons" here.) The average EU physician earns about half as much - see that fact demonstrated here. Why?
Because Healthcare in the EU is not a "free market". The profession is considered so important to well-being that it must be managed by a National HealthCare System.
PS1: Which is also the reason why pharmaceutical companies barely break-even in Europe, and go off to the US to gouge their clients ...
PS2: NB: Which is why lifespan and total healthcare costs are so remarkably different between the EU and the US. See that fact infographically here.
Battle lines have been drawn as Bernie Sanders launches his latest attempt to establish a healthcare system that covers all 323 million Americans.
Standing in opposition to Sanders’ plan are what he calls the “most powerful and greedy forces in American society”: the pharmaceutical industry, insurance companies, Wall Street and the Republican party.
“The opposition to this will be extraordinary,” Sanders said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office, prior to the launch of his universal healthcare bill, known as “Medicare for All”.
“They will spend an enormous amount of money fighting us. They will lie about what is in the program. They will frighten the American people,” he said.
Sanders has no illusions about the bill’s fate in a Republican-controlled Congress, where it has little chance of passing. But he says the time has arrived to have a debate he believes is fundamental: is healthcare a right or a privilege in America?
Sanders will formally unveil the bill at a press conference on Wednesday, with the backing of nearly a third of the Democratic caucus in the Senate – a record level of support for a bill he introduced just four years ago with only one signature, his own.
The Sanders plan would radically reform the American healthcare system, transitioning it over the course of four years to a federally administered insurance program. The new system would be underwritten by an increase in taxes.
Sanders’ “single-payer” bill would provide comprehensive coverage for everything from the cost of hospital services, prescription drugs, mental health, maternity and newborn care and dental health.
The proposal would gradually expand Medicare – the federal health insurance program for people who are 65 or older and some younger Americans with disabilities and other illnesses – until it covers everyone.
I write from France, in the European Union (EU). Where 735 million souls - living in 28 countries (so, demographically comparable to the US) - are covered by National HealthCare Insurance because it is a condition for joining the EU. That number (735M) is more than double the US-population, and far, far more than the percentage of Americans with bonafide low-cost HealthCare Insurance. (Note that I am not saying that National Health Coverage is 100% free, gratis and for nothing throughout the EU. Some EU-countries do have private insurance that compensates the National Healthcare coverage - but that family insurance costs rarely more than 150/200€ a month - the dollar and euro being at about parity nowadays).
The average GP in the US earns more than $200K per year. (Verify that fact by looking it up at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Code 29-1060, "Physicians & Surgeons" here.) The average EU physician earns about half as much - see that fact demonstrated here. Why?
Because Healthcare in the EU is not a "free market". The profession is considered so important to well-being that it must be managed by a National HealthCare System.
PS1: Which is also the reason why pharmaceutical companies barely break-even in Europe, and go off to the US to gouge their clients ...
PS2: NB: Which is why lifespan and total healthcare costs are so remarkably different between the EU and the US. See that fact infographically here.
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