Text 27033, 46 rader
Skriven 2009-01-31 10:17:24 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 27003 av Björn Felten (2:203/2)
Ärende: Health Care
===================
Björn Felten wrote to Robert Bashe on Friday January 30 2009 at 17:11:

[To Michiel van der Vlist about free medical care for foreigners]
RB>> Now that you mention it, I think I've read something about that at
RB>> one time or another. But I think Denmark is an exception in that.

BF> Nonsense! At least all the Nordic countries have absolutely free
BF> healthcare.

For foreigners? That was the subject here. And of course, nothing is "free".

BF> AAMOF I was very surprised when first I heard that some countries
BF> charges anything for healthcare.

ALL countries charge for health care - it's only a question of the financing
and who gets the benefits: only nationals or foreigners as well.

BF> If it's two things you can expect if you pay any taxes at all, it's
BF> gotta be free education and free healthcare.

Free? I read "pay any taxes". That's not free in my books - it's just that
someone else pays the bill.

BF> As Ward said, free healthcare is what you can get if you don't waste
BF> all the taxpayer's money on crazy military adventures...

Or on crazy political hobbies like solar energy in Germany, the land of fog and
rain. Or electric autos, many times the price of a normal car, with a quarter
of the reach and load capacity - and naturally operating on highly taxed
electric power (40% in Germany) inefficiently transferred by heavy and
expensive batteries with a limited lifetime. But that's not even the biggest
problem here.

The EU spends, as a percentage, so much of its GDP on welfare that it would not
even be in a position to fight a real war unless the social benefits were
reduced fairly drastically. Even a minor "police action" as in Afghanistan
(with the Germans happy and relatively safe around Kabul and the Americans and
British doing the dirty work in the south) strains the German budget.

All in all, there are pros and cons to every country, and every country has
it's own priorities that it cannot and should not try to impose on others.

Cheers, Bob

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