Why don't we have nationalized health care in this country? Europeans live longer than us with national care.

Question

In France, the average women lives to be 84 years old. In the USA, the average women lives to be 79 years old. In France like in Italy, England, Germany, etc. those countries have a national health care plan. In this country, we have to pay through the nose for our health insurance. It used to be said that our research & development was superior to other countries, and so was our health care. If so, why do Europeans live on average five years longer than we do?

Answer 1

One word...STRESS! Europeans on average have very low stress lives. In the U.S, we are all about stressing ourselves out over every little thing and it kills us, literally. Our medicine is better, our research is better, our doctors are better and we have more money, but the one thing they have is less stress. They don't have 40+ hour work weeks, which lets be honest a 60 hour work week is not out of the question in the U.S, unless your a union worker. Life moves at a slower pace there than it does here and it helps in the longevity of life when your not moving a million miles an hour every day for 40 years. It has very little to do with the health care system because any of them with money still come here to get the best health care in the world.

Answer 2

Point blank - the social health care system works better for countries, such as Austria, because they don't have bottom feeders like we do here.

In Austria especially, it's not just the health care system that works for them, it's the whole government system. Each citizen gets a free college education as long as they live crime-free lives. Therefore, they work towards a degree and continue to pay into the system with 40% sales taxes - which they can afford after maintaining an educated career. They also have a low crime rate because no one is extremely poor, they are well-educated, and EARN their government rights by staying out of trouble. It's a circular system that works well for their culture. You'll also have to keep in mind that those are small countries. They don't have long waiting lines to get medical help to the likes of what we'll see.

It would not work here. Our welfare system is already extremely flawed, and easily taken advantage of. We don't have free higher education to be able to afford the higher taxes with better careers. Let's face it, we have a lot of people here that are just plain lazy. Our welfare system is ok for a temporary solution to a run of bad luck in life, but others abuse it long-term. They'd rather pick up their welfare checks every month instead of attempting to find jobs. Some even turn to crime to make ends meet instead of, god forbid, working like the rest of us to achieve personal goals.

Free health care would also be taken advantage of. Why should those of us who have worked for our educations and careers have to keep footing the bill for those who don't? We'll be paying for them with more taxes. If they aren't paying the bills, it's got to come from somewhere. Also, you get what you pay for. "Free" doesn't mean good. Those of us who will still want to have private insurance and see private practitioners will have to pay twice as much as we do now - on top of big taxes to babysit everyone else. It's not entirely fair to all sides.

Answer 3

European eat much healthier and don't work as long of hours as Americans do. They are much more laid back. Americans have way too much going on in their lives. I prefer not to have nationalized health care for the simple reason it would degrade what health care we have and it will cost us twice as much as it would to purchase our own.

Answer 4

It has nothing to do with health care. It has to do with American eating habits. Americans eat more unhealthy foods than the rest of the world combined. This is the reason for it.

Answer 5

We prefer to live as free people, rather than expect the government to care for us as if we were animals in a zoo.

Plus, Europeans have to LIVE in Europe. Maybe it just SEEMS longer! :)

Answer 6

Nationalized healther care is not free. Instead of paying $800 per month in insurance premiums, they pay $800 per month in taxes. The difference is that you don't have a choice to pay taxes. I can choose not to have insurance. Furthermore, if I choose to have insurance, I can choose to get it from United Healthcare, Blue Cross, Humana, etc. If it is nationalized, you have no choices. The absense of choice is oppression and slavery. Why would you want that? Is a longer life of slavery worth more than a shorter life of freedom? Not to me. "Live free or die". If you want to be a slave, go to Europe, leave the rest of us that enjoy our freedom alone.