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Maybe Obama should sit down with the Swiss.

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:08 pm
by Reservoir_Dog
The Swiss seem to have figured it out.

Some 47 million Americans do not have even basic health insurance, while millions more fear they could also end up with no coverage if they lose their jobs or contract a serious illness. That's scandalous.
To remedy these defects, Obama initially proposed a comprehensive public-sector medicare plan to compete with private medical insurance. However, he seems to be backing away from this public option under pressure from critics who apprehend that it would be ruinously costly.
In a column in the New York Times, Paul Krugman, the left-wing, Nobel-prize-winning economist, pointed out a public option is not the only route. As an alternative, he speculated, Obama might endorse the Swiss medicare system, which relies entirely on private insurance companies to provide affordable care for everyone under government regulation.
The Swiss model requires every resident to purchase a basic medicare policy from one of several competing private insurance companies. To assure affordability, the government subsidizes premiums for the needy and requires the health insurers to offer basic coverage to all applicants at a uniform rate, regardless of age or medical history. The additional expense of insuring higher-cost clients is offset through reinsurance.
The Swiss are allowed to contract with private insurance companies for supplementary benefits beyond the basics required by the government. Yet on an age-adjusted basis, the total costs of medicare in Switzerland are no higher than in Canada.
This Swiss model works. It provides the Swiss people with superior medicare services without the long waiting times, shortages of medical technology and other chronic deficiencies.
Krugman is not alone in noting the Swiss success. The Dutch parliament decided in 2006 to replace the Netherlands' inefficient mix of public and private medicare with an all-private system based on the Swiss model. The Dutch health ministry boasts the new system delivers more choices, more competition and guarantees of affordability.
Let's hope the Obama administration likewise embraces the Swiss model of medicare that relies on competing private insurance companies to provide efficient and affordable coverage for everyone under strict government regulation.
The Dutch health ministry argues there is no alternative to competing private insurance companies as a means of ensuring better quality care, greater cost consciousness, better affordability and more tailor-made care through greater influence by customers.

(taken from an artical by Rory Leishman)

Re: Maybe Obama should sit down with the Swiss.

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 8:54 pm
by ruggbutt
Why don't you ask the swiss what their income is taxed at?

Re: Maybe Obama should sit down with the Swiss.

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:56 pm
by callmeslick
ruggbutt wrote:Why don't you ask the swiss what their income is taxed at?
completely irrelevant. The point is that what the Swiss pay, per capita, for healthcare(taxes
included) is about 2/3 of what we pay. And, while I don't have the numbers in front of me,
I suspect they rank higher than 32nd, worldwide, in overall health of the population, which is
the embarrassing ranking the US is currently standing at. What the Swiss, French, Dutch, etc
pay in taxes overall is reflected in a range of social services, most of which Americans could
only dream of having. I wish every American could spend at least a year in some other Western
democracy. They might return home and actually demand services for their tax dollars, and
develop the collective balls to demand same from their elected representatives.

Re: Maybe Obama should sit down with the Swiss.

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:58 pm
by Dawg
You realize less than 1/64th of one half percent of Americans give a flip what Canadians think?

Re: Maybe Obama should sit down with the Swiss.

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:02 pm
by callmeslick
Dawg wrote:You realize less than 1/64th of one half percent of Americans give a flip what Canadians think?

and you think your poll numbers are higher? :P

Re: Maybe Obama should sit down with the Swiss.

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:05 pm
by Dawg
Even the president gets heckled, and laughed at. If I cant respect Obama, its very difficult to entertain outsiders opinions.
But if it works for you, excellent.

Re: Maybe Obama should sit down with the Swiss.

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:12 pm
by callmeslick
Dawg wrote:Even the president gets heckled.
a fact that every American should find disgusting. Most do. Those that don't get it, will,
I suspect, find out over the next several election cycles. Obama is going to be nearly
a sure-fire second term President simply because his opposition is coming across as a
bunch of complete loons. Brainwashing kids, by urging them to stay in school? Death panels
for old people?? God gawd, dawg, you DO realize, don't you, that the vast number of our
citizens view these clowns as a total joke?

Re: Maybe Obama should sit down with the Swiss.

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 1:59 am
by ruggbutt
We don't view the hole he's put this country in as a joke. The debt Bush created is a drop in the bucket in comparison. And the fact that I publicly disagree with Obama gets me put on a "watch this guy" list. How (un)American.

Re: Maybe Obama should sit down with the Swiss.

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 5:20 am
by callmeslick
ruggbutt wrote:We don't view the hole he's put this country in as a joke. The debt Bush created is a drop in the bucket in comparison. And the fact that I publicly disagree with Obama gets me put on a "watch this guy" list. How (un)American.
what list?? More paranoid lunacy, Rugg? As for the debt, yes, it's significant. However, the economy he
was left dictated the response. I don't like it, but that's the facts. What were the excuses for a 2 trillion dollar unpaid war? What were the excuses for lopping $3 trillion in taxes off the top 1/2 of 1% of the
population when the budget wasn't balanced to start with? At least, Obama has a plan of attack to start
to undo the mess. The other side? A bunch of looney tunes with NOTHING to add.

Re: Maybe Obama should sit down with the Swiss.

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 8:25 am
by CUDA
callmeslick wrote:
ruggbutt wrote:We don't view the hole he's put this country in as a joke. The debt Bush created is a drop in the bucket in comparison. And the fact that I publicly disagree with Obama gets me put on a "watch this guy" list. How (un)American.
what list?? More paranoid lunacy, Rugg? As for the debt, yes, it's significant. However, the economy he
was left dictated the response. I don't like it, but that's the facts. What were the excuses for a 2 trillion dollar unpaid war? What were the excuses for lopping $3 trillion in taxes off the top 1/2 of 1% of the
population when the budget wasn't balanced to start with? At least, Obama has a plan of attack to start
to undo the mess. The other side? A bunch of looney tunes with NOTHING to add.
quoted right out of the DNC hand book and you didn't even need to link it. :lol: