America's failed model for the world

[kpete]

America's failed model for the world

Europeans keep asking me, has America lost its mind? From healthcare to its economy, the US is looking merely average


Posters at a townhall meeting on healthcare in Alhambra, California. Photograph: Danny Moloshok/Reuters

Europeans are shaking their heads over their American friends again. Whether talking to people in the street, in the cafés or to journalists or political leaders, everyone here asks me the same question: Has America lost its mind? Town halls filled with angry citizens, shouting at their elected leaders, some of them armed with guns and threatening signs? Besides the media spectacle of these neo-1776 revolutionaries, what is doubly perplexing to Europeans is the focus of the protests: healthcare.

What's strange to a European is that everyone here already has healthcare. The place that Donald Rumsdfeld once sneeringly called "old Europe" long ago solved this dilemma, producing quality healthcare for a fraction of the price that Americans pay. Many Europeans are astonished when they find out that 47 million Americans – larger than the populations of most European nations – don't have any healthcare at all except a hospital emergency room.

"I don't understand you Americans. You blow billions on a useless war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and billions more to bail out banks that nearly bankrupted the world economy, but you don't ensure healthcare for your own people. Even Obama can't make a difference. It's as if your democracy doesn't work anymore."

more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/sep/15/europe-us-healthcare-economy

[YOY]

1. I hate it when Europeans act as if all of us were Republicans.

Reminds me of the time I was at Frankfurt Airport and having a smoke with my wife. We were chatting in her language. A dutch woman started a conversation with us (my wife mostly) in English and proceeded to rant that all Americans were like Bush.

I politely replied in perfect American English that this was simply not the case and her attitude was as prejudicial, provincial, and nationalistic as an American Republican.

The rude woman was shocked that I would be able to speak any language other than English. (Indeed I can and in more than 2 languages)...so sorry if I dared to prove her ignorance wrong in a non-confrontory but definitely rude way.

I doubt I made her impression of us any worse.

[caffefwee]

2. European System Superior

European Democracies Control Insurance Profits — And Enjoy Superior Health Care For Much Less Money

August 25, 2009

In an interesting article in The Washington Post, “5 Myths About Health Care Around the World,” the author, T.R. Reid, says he has traveled the world studying how other developed democracies provide health care. Reid writes, “Instead of dismissing these models as ‘socialist,’ we could adapt their solutions to fix our problems.”

Reid writes, “The key difference is that foreign health insurance plans exist only to pay people’s medical bills, not to make a profit. The United States is the only developed country that lets insurance companies profit from basic health coverage.”

These are the five myths Reid identifies:

http://daytonos.com/?p=7212

[caffefwee]

3. Healthcare vs. Warfare