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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (908)	5/25/2005 12:56:11 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

HEALTH CARE REVOLUTION IN EUROPE Daily Policy Digest Monday, May 23, 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After generations of suffering long waiting periods for timely medical care, rationing of medical procedures, financial exhaustion from high income taxes and a 17.5 percent value-added tax, a growing number of European Union (EU) citizens are seeking movement toward the free market health care Americans tend to take for granted, says Conrad R. Meier, senior fellow in health policy for the Heartland Institute. The Stockholm Network, a European think tank, released a survey showing patients across eight countries in Europe were losing faith in their socialized health plans: >More than four in five of the 8,000 interviewed expressed a willingness to travel across borders for medical care. >In 2003, citizens of the United Kingdom spent $7.7 billion on private health insurance products and private medical insurance covered 12.7 percent of the population. >At least eight percent had “cash plans,” which are very similar to our health savings accounts. Meier says much of the movement is being fueled by the Internet. Through the Internet, Europeans are witnessing the power of free markets in other countries and are using the Internet to shop around for medical services in the United States as well as in other less-restrictive health care environments. And, like U.S. consumers, those in the EU can now compare prices across borders, since half of Europe uses the same currency, says Meier. Such comparison-shopping was not available until January 2002, but the common currency, the euro, is now part of daily life for more than 300 million Europeans -- a demographic very close to our own. Source: Conrad F. Meier, “My Turn: Health Care Revolution in Europe,” Heartland Institute, April 2005. For text: heartland.org For more on Health Systems of Other Countries: ncpa.org