Text 35470, 49 rader
Skriven 2009-09-01 07:45:52 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 35449 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: Universal health insurance
==================================
Ward Dossche wrote to TIM RICHARDSON on Monday August 31 2009 at 19:06:

TR>> The plan I've got (and a lot of other Americans have) is just fine. I
TR>> don't need any government healthcare plan. The insurance I have costs
TR>> me $120 a year!

WD> About the same as here.

Whoa! to both of you.

First to Tim:

You're not mentioning some important things here. First, what restrictions are
there on the type of treatment and disease/infirmity covered, how much
deductible and how large the co-payment? Then: who's paying most of the bill?
There's no way on earth you can get private health insurance worthy of the name
for $120 a YEAR - that's $10 a month - even if you're only 25 years old, and
from what I read, you're not. For that kind of money, without someone else
(your previous employer?) paying the bulk of the cost, you _might_ be able to
get some kind of additional insurance to augment a normal health insurance
policy, but certainly no more.

In a nutshell, I don't believe your unqualified (in the sense of "without
restrictions or limitations") statement for even a second.

Then to Ward:

I don't know what you mean with your "about the same as here", but you
certainly aren't talking about government health insurance as paid by a
majority of the population. Now, you _personally_ may be paying that much,
assuming you have a very low pension, no additional income, and assuming the
charge for the government plan is based on income. But I'd be willing to bet
dimes to dollars that the bulk of the population would be delighted to have
government health insurance at ten times the stated figure - that would be $100
a MONTH.

So I don't believe your unqualified statement either.

I know what health insurance costs in Germany, both private and the government
variety. Health insurance in the States - there is only the private variety
there - is from what I know much more expensive and there are more deductibles,
limitations and co-payments than here. I don't know the situation in Belgium,
but doubt the doctors work for free there either, and if the _direct_ cost of
coverage is low, it's definitely augmented some other way (taxes being usual).

Cheers, Bob

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