Americans in Paris evaluate French healthcare and benefits

Run time: 09:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lDmOMgBW38   Posted on YouTube: January 29, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 06, 2008 By DU Member: nebula Views on DU: 833

 
This stellar level of public service and benefits seems rather incredible,
at least to us Yanks. But seems to be the norm in European countries.

Plus, medical house calls!

:grr:

They have multi-payer universal health care, much like what Hillary was so heavily criticized for suggesting for this country.

I doubt they have mandatory health insurance in France, or any country for that matter.

and I lived in Germany before, my daughter lives in the U.K. and these things are so normal for us Europeans that we don't even think about it. When I came to the US to live there for a while with a family, I was shocked that the 70-year-old family father still had to work to get health care for him, his wife and his high-school-aged daughter. Here people retire between the age of 60 and 65, get an nice pension and health care and everything is covered. Retirees even have a huge reduction in the taxes that people pay here.

This American family paid a lot for their daughter's private school and they weren't looking forward to pay the even more expensive college for her. When I told them that even private schools in France don't cost more that about 500 US$ a year and university/college even less they just couldn't believe it. But I swear it is true! My daughter went to kinder-garden, pre-school and elementary school and it didn't cost a thing. Then she went to a private middle-school and high-school and we paid 225 Euros a year. We pay 22 Euros when we visit a doctor but get the money back from our insurance. Drugs are free, you only have to pay 2 Euros yourself for some of them. I have rheumatoid arthritis and get all my medication, that I have to take regularly, for free. House calls are totally normal here. When my daughter was young and had a fever late at night, the doctor was there in 10 minutes. The same for my father when he had a stroke. After 5 minutes he was on his way to the hospital and that certainly saved him.

What can I say... Only when I saw what difficulties people in the US or other not-European countries have, I realized how lucky we are and that we really should appreciate it more.

Imagine what a country could accomplish when its treasury isn't being plundered and picked clean by the corporate lobbyists and robber barons. When it isn't bogged down by endless wars and colossal defense budgets.

You are indeed lucky to live in such a place!

...are aeons apart. Funny how many here naturally abide the former, while dismissing the latter as hype and "conspiracy theory."

I love America, the American Constitution (pre-Bush), the can-do spirit of Americans, the literature and language, the individualism in terms of creativity of those of us who are educated, the ability to own my own home and lots of things. I prefer living here because I don't like a lot of the traditions and the Catholicism of continental Europe. But -- the governments -- the education systems, the healthcare, the labor laws, the relationship of the people to their governments, that I love.

I had an extremely complex birth. You would not believe what the French hospital and doctors did for me. They were just wonderful. At the time, my husband was "between jobs." There was no discussion of money. The doctors simply gave me what I needed -- two weeks in the hospital because my baby did not gain her weight back when she was supposed to, the best care in the world, and not one word about money. I had a beautiful room in the hospital which I shared with one other woman. Our babies shared a small room adjoining us so that we could see them at all times and go look at them and bring them to us once we could walk.

The morning after the birth, the doctor and a team of other doctors encircled my bed. They told me that the fact that I and my baby had survived was a miracle. They were the miracle, not me. I am forever grateful to the French for giving me my baby. Paris, mon amour.

By nature, the American people, as individuals, are even more generous than the French or other Europeans. What a society we could have if were did spend all our money on policing the world. I love Americans, and we are capable of having and deserve a government that reflects who we are, not these scoundrels in D.C.

How much do we spend per capita on the military each year? How much to other countries spend? Let's face it. We need to defend ourselves and our peaceful friends around the world need to be defended. But we, the American people, bear more than our share of the cost. And we are defending our enemies, not our friends, in far too many cases.

My father in law in old and I have watched his health deteriorate from here (I now live in the states). My father is old and I have watched his health go down hill. The difference in quality of treatment between my French father-in-law and my dad has been incredible. I am bipolar and getting a divorce and am terrified about losing my healthcare and my medication. I have thought about using this time to become French (which I can do because of my wife) just so I can relax about my healthcare.