he does not know how much it costs to the insurance company...
he only knows how much it costs to him...
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how much he paid out of pocket is not the same as the cost. if he had to buy his own insurance policy, that too would be factored into the cost.
.
as for waiting to see a doctor, if you have a physician that you regularly go to, they usually see you right away. another reason why access to preventive care is so important.

France clearly is the new land of opportunity. :-)
Unemployment rate 20%, Sarkozi about to ban burkas. The percentage of muslim population is exploding. I wonder, how much longer will medical doctors be able to answer all the emergency phone calls ( what a waste of doctor's time, man(md) )?

Romney should publicly apologize for his "reform" in MA and use it as an example why it wouldn't work across the country.. his only defense that I agree with is that was done at the state level...
********healthcare-economist.com/2008/04/14/health-care-around-the-world-france/
this is a fairly balance article about the french healthcare system.. several of points..
1. insurance industries are loosely regulated, whereas ours will be even more regulated in the future..
2. doctors are still free to set up their fees..
3. France is running a huge deficit of the system..right now..
4. Everyone pays the same percentage (not even amount, which will not happen here)..
5. Everyone there has a supplemental coverage anyway - so the true cost is more than 13% of your income..
6. I still don't see why it has to run through the government as opposed to just private market
***********.oecd.org/dataoecd/61/52/43707170.pdf
this is the employment picture in France..

you pay taxes or you pay for insurance or your employer pays for your insurance.. it's all the same to me...

except is not exactly the same.. you definitely have more choices , more say, when it's not done through the government (taxes)... that's why I believe it will be repealed (58% support it now, up from 54%).. people can be mad all they want at the insurance companies, but majority still don't want the government to run it, don't want to feel like they are welfare recipients..

Svetlana, i mean the same as the money coming out of my pocket one way or another..

Wow, 13% is a lot of money. So, if a family makes $100,000 a year, they will pay for their "free" healthcare $13,000. Wonderful.(md) ( Я думаю, что этот символ в данном случае уместен:-D )

actually I am looking at other sources.. and many say it's around 20% of your income.. and covers around 70% of the cost.. plus the employer pays for it separately too..so, if overall they say healthcare in France costs less than in the US, they make way less money than people in US..
another thing I don't get - they say their doctors make around 40K euros.. I can't imagine doctors here making this little.. something is not right.. no one will spend this many years on their education and not be able to provide reasonable income for their families..

Doctors are paid little in Europe. Do the best and the the brightest go to medicine there? Does not make any sense to study for so many years , and then be paid like an office clerk with no education.
Or maybe office clerks get paid a lot less than 40K.
There was a theme in another group about wonderful life in Sweden -a guy posted an article about how great it is for women in Sweden because their husbands stay at home with kids while woman go to work(:-S ). But the missed point of the article was that the women there make so little money -$ 20K on average, and have to pay twice as much compared to here for basically anything at the stores.

Why work when I can get ?42,000 in benefits a year AND drive a Mercedes?
By Paul Sims

From UK
The Davey family's ?815-a-week state handouts pay for a four-bedroom home, top-of-the-range mod cons and two vehicles including a Mercedes people carrier.
Father-of-seven Peter gave up work because he could make more living on benefits.
Yet he and his wife Claire are still not happy with their lot.
With an eighth child on the way, they are demanding a bigger house, courtesy of the taxpayer.:-)
Read more:
***********.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1265508/Peter-Davey-gets-42-000-benefits-year-drives-Mercedes.html#ixzz0l2pSb5Ed