12-23-2016, 03:01 AM
I have followed this thread with interest. I have had health care in the US, Germany (1983-93), Qatar (2006-11), and through the US military.
As a resident of Qatar, I had free medical care from the state--no insurance needed at all. I was so unused to this it took me two years to figure out I could just go to a hospital for free.
Germany had doctors, hospitals and nurses the equal of the US, but health care costs there per capita are half those of the US.
What I so miss about that system was its simplicity. You never saw a bill. Your family doctor would give you a "Schein" to take to a specialist if you needed one, or to the hospital. My son was born in Germany. I had my gall bladder removed. My daughter had two years of chemo.
I take it back. We were charged 5 marks a night for every night my daughter was in the hospital. That was about $2.50. We were covered for everything, including eye care and dental, up to DM 1,500,000.
Back in the US, we paid twice as much for half the coverage. We sent Blue cross our bills and they decided whether and how much to pay. My daughter could not be covered for a year because of her pre-existing condition. That was back in the '90s, when the Clinton's health care reform failed. Every conservative I knew had a friend from Canada who came to the US because their system was supposedly so bad. The US has the best system in the world I often heard. No "socialism" for us!!
Why is it not possible to have such a competent system in the US?
As a resident of Qatar, I had free medical care from the state--no insurance needed at all. I was so unused to this it took me two years to figure out I could just go to a hospital for free.
Germany had doctors, hospitals and nurses the equal of the US, but health care costs there per capita are half those of the US.
What I so miss about that system was its simplicity. You never saw a bill. Your family doctor would give you a "Schein" to take to a specialist if you needed one, or to the hospital. My son was born in Germany. I had my gall bladder removed. My daughter had two years of chemo.
I take it back. We were charged 5 marks a night for every night my daughter was in the hospital. That was about $2.50. We were covered for everything, including eye care and dental, up to DM 1,500,000.
Back in the US, we paid twice as much for half the coverage. We sent Blue cross our bills and they decided whether and how much to pay. My daughter could not be covered for a year because of her pre-existing condition. That was back in the '90s, when the Clinton's health care reform failed. Every conservative I knew had a friend from Canada who came to the US because their system was supposedly so bad. The US has the best system in the world I often heard. No "socialism" for us!!
Why is it not possible to have such a competent system in the US?
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
