General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A new Gallup poll found that Americans now have the lowest-ever views of the U.S. health system [View all]Aristus
(72,292 posts)Especially for a nation that has been poisoned on a diet of socialized medicine propaganda.
The British follow a plan known as the Beveridge model of health care, in which the government owns the hospitals and clinics, and the doctors, nurses, and allied health workers are government employees. There is still a private system of health care, but of course, patients have to pay a lot more for it.
What the US needs is Germanys Bismarck model of care, in which medical practices are privately owned, but the government pays the bills, instead of the patient.
Both systems levy a tax for the citizen, but the tax-payers outlay in countries that use either system is almost always less than what patients pay in premiums here in the US.
Plus, national health insurance systems keep costs down, because, unlike with private, for-profit insurance companies, national systems dont need a heavy, cumbersome, expensive bureaucracy to determine who gets care and who doesnt when everyone gets care.