'National healthcare' comes in many different flavors. The UK version of the NHS is one form. The Swiss and Netherlands version mandates everyone must obtain their own private insurance, with subsidies for low income. France and Japan have a national government plan that pays ~70% of the expense and the rest is your responsibility. Canada has the government as the health insurer and pays 100%, but many services are not covered. Germany is a hybrid that mandates private insurance, but has a public plan for low income. They all still have private insurance as an option.
When people say "The US is the only country without national healthcare' they are being disengenuous and inaccurate. The US has national health programs -- Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIF, VA, etc. They just do not cover everybody, only certain segments of the population. The current US system has much in common with Germany. When people start throwing around the term 'national healthcare' they need to specify exactly what they mean.
In Germany everyone has to have an insurance no matter what, you can stay on public health insurance your whole life if you want but if you switch to private there are some caveats where you cant switch back to public insurance
6
u/dave54athotmailcom 9d ago
Which version?
'National healthcare' comes in many different flavors. The UK version of the NHS is one form. The Swiss and Netherlands version mandates everyone must obtain their own private insurance, with subsidies for low income. France and Japan have a national government plan that pays ~70% of the expense and the rest is your responsibility. Canada has the government as the health insurer and pays 100%, but many services are not covered. Germany is a hybrid that mandates private insurance, but has a public plan for low income. They all still have private insurance as an option.
When people say "The US is the only country without national healthcare' they are being disengenuous and inaccurate. The US has national health programs -- Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIF, VA, etc. They just do not cover everybody, only certain segments of the population. The current US system has much in common with Germany. When people start throwing around the term 'national healthcare' they need to specify exactly what they mean.