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[ArticleMedia]
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
By Spencer M. Austin
As most people know, in November of last year, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. He ran on a platform that promised fundamental changes to the American systems of government and economics. He said that he wanted to help the 50 million Americans without health care by giving it to them for free. Obama was ridiculed throughout the campaign by conservatives as a “socialist” and “radical” who wanted nothing more than to destroy the American way of life. They said he wanted to create a national health care network, like that of France or Canada, and that he was going to raise taxes by exponentially in order to do it. Despite all this, he won by more than 10 million votes, suggesting that quite possibly, people might want a “health care overhaul.”
Okay, lets face it; the American private health system is one of the worst in the civilized world. The international health watchdog, the World Health Organization (WHO), ranks the American system of privatized health care the 37th in the world, right after the Caribbean island of Dominica. That’s right, an island that’s smaller than Rhode Island has a better system of health care than the United States, the country that conservative commentator Glenn Beck stated has the “best health care system in the world.” That might come as a surprise to some of you, seeing as that in January of 2008, Beck, after receiving surgery in an America hospital, stated that his operation had gone wrong and that he had wanted to kill himself afterward. Something else you might find if you were to look at the WHOs list of national health care systems, is that the country with the best health care system is France, yes--France, the country with the largest “socialized” health care network in the world.
Besides the obvious benefits of universal health care, there are many lesser-known advantages that most Americans would find very helpful. For one, in France, anyone with children under the age of 3 can ask for parental child-raising leave with compensatory pay. This is in addition to the maternity leave women receive after they have had children. In addition, if you need to work, a government paid nanny will care for your children and even do house chores for you. One thing is clear, the French want their citizens family focused, not job focused, and, to me, that doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
One thing many people do not understand about universal health care is that, in most countries where it can be found, is that it is not run by the government, but by a group of non-profit organizations. These groups negotiate the prices of surgeries and procedures with the government. It is still highly-regulated, but using the term “socialist” is just not accurate. If you were to go to another country, say Canada or Italy, and ask people there about the American health care system, they would tell you that they don’t understand why Americans are putting up such a fuss. In a 2008 survey, 91% of Canadians said that they prefer their form of health care to that of the United States. I don’t blame them; after all, the average American pays a little more than $7200 to their health insurer. In France, the average citizen pays only half that amount for health care, but receives care that is twice the quality of that found in the United States. In effect, Americans pay more, but get less.
Lastly, many argue the President’s health bill will plunge America so deep into debt that it will take many generations before it is paid off. Lets look at the facts. In the United States, 21% of the national budget goes to the Defense Department. That’s roughly $790 billion per year; by far the largest national defense budget in the world, and almost 14 times greater than the budget of the runner up, United Kingdom. If we could just lower our defense spending to 16% of the national budget, we could cover the cost of universal health care for everyone in the nation. After all, even the Defense Department says that the military budget is far to high.
So, before you decide that universal health care is “socialist” or that it will bankrupt our nation, take a closer look at the facts and I promise that you will find that national health care is in your best interest.
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