Wed 7 Oct 2009
US State healthcare systems already have combined budget larger than Pentagon
Posted by Helen Evans under US Healthcare Reforms
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There is a common belief amongst Europeans that America has no state funded healthcare. From 2002 to 2005 when I was living and working in Brussels (the heart of EU) I can’t remember how many times I was told by people working in and around the EU institutions that in America if you don’t have private insurance you will be left to die in the streets!
This is simply not true. Since the 1960’s America has had the state funded and administered systems Medicare, Medicaid and later SCHIP. I urge my European readers to check out these links for brief explanations of the American state funded healthcare systems. Even before anything that Obama can add they are costing America a fortune, I was reliably informed by the man who used to run them that their budget is larger than that of the Pentagon.
If Obamacare is adopted Americans will find themselves with organisations such as NICE and with all manner of rationing as we have seen in the UK with the government deciding who it is cost effective to treat and who will be left to die.
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