Socialist Health Care: Does it Work?

[ShawnD]

Yes interesting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland" where every citizen owns a gun and, if the authorities come to your house and demand to see your gun and you do NOT have it, they arrest you.

I'm not sure if they've repealed this yet, but they used to require that every building, including houses, have bomb shelters. Most people put a bar and a pool table or hot tub in them

Regarding Swiss healthcare, it is universal I believe, but it isn't for the most part publicly-funded, it is a combination of a publicly-funded system (University of Geneva), subsized private, and totally private systems (private doctors and medical practices). I think though that it is law that all citizens have to buy insurance.

I can't vouch for other countries, but this is pretty much what Canada has too. I don't know the details of the Swiss system, but maybe somebody on this forum is from that country and can compare:
-all family doctors are private
-all specialists not located in a hospital are private
-all dental is private
-all eye care is private
-all blood testing, urine testing, x-ray, mri, cardiogram, ekg, and other things of this nature that are not in a hospital are private
-doctors who have private practices are not allowed to work in hospitals
-doctors who work in hospitals are not allowed to work in their own practice
-doctors can switch between hospital or private any time they want, but they can't work in both at the same time (conflict of interest apparently)
-most private health procedures are paid for by showing your health care card; I can't think of anything that isn't covered, but I know they exist
-everybody is (somewhat) required to buy government insurance. I wasn't even asked if I wanted health care, they just started sending me a bill for $120 every 3 months. You can opt out if you want, but that seems like a really bad idea.
-everybody has the option of getting extra government subsidized insurance (blue cross) to help pay for dental, eye, and drugs. It's not required, but it's a good idea. In Alberta it's $41/month for a family, or I think $20 for an individual.

Where's Monique from? Doesn't she live pretty close to Switzerland?

 

[WheelsRCool]

You are badly misinformed. In the US, if you own a firearm that can fire continuously while the trigger is depressed, you have to have purchased a class 3 license before taking possession of it, and you have to keep that permit current and pay fees, and you have to notify the ATF when you want to transport that gun to a location not specified on your permit. Practically identical weapons which have to be fired with individual trigger-pulls used to be exempted until a bunch of nuts pushed through laws forbidding things like flash-suppressors, folding stocks, and other features that might might make the semi-automatic rifles "look" like the full-auto military guns.

Switzerland's laws are structured more toward the maintenance of a citizen militia, in which an invasion/incursion can be countered with well-armed quick-reaction forces. I would NOT want to attempt a home invasion of a Swiss home for any reason.

Yeah, Switzerland seems more "American" than America itself in some ways it seems.

But yeah those laws you said I think were in line with what I was thinking, point is, if you own such firearms in America, the government keeps an eye on you.

 

[hubertg]

All my brothers and sisters live in Holland, are married with kids and their social healthcare system is awesome. They have no complaints whatsoever. hg

 

[devil-fire]

I can't vouch for other countries, but this is pretty much what Canada has too. I don't know the details of the Swiss system, but maybe somebody on this forum is from that country and can compare:
-doctors who have private practices are not allowed to work in hospitals
-doctors who work in hospitals are not allowed to work in their own practice
-most private health procedures are paid for by showing your health care card; I can't think of anything that isn't covered, but I know they exist

i think it changes between provinces also. i live in ontario and my family doctor is at the hospital almost every night checking on patients (i think the people she checks on might just be patients from her family practice though). also i know that ambulance, air lifting and some rehabilitation programs are not covered entirely by the ontario health insurance plan. I am fairly sure a ride in an ambulance is $100, i don't know about the air lifting but a 2 month stay at a hospital's brain injury rehabilitation facility is about $5,000. all 3 are covered totally by blue cross

 

[mheslep]

All my brothers and sisters live in Holland, are married with kids and their social healthcare system is awesome. They have no complaints whatsoever. hg

In 2003 Holland instituted some major reforms of its health care system so its not clear what it means to say the care there is 'awesome'. It use to be awesome but not now? It use to be terrible but now its awesome? They use a private insurance plan to bypass the waiting lists and that is awesome?