When looking at socialized systems that seem to work, one must be careful to compare apples to apples. The US has 350 millionish people: neither France nor Israel are even half as large. In addition, at least when I lived in France (1987-2000), I paid nearly 50 percent of my income towards health insurance. I would imagine that this was/is true for most of the population. The system works relatively well, except under stress: we forget all too quickly the many thousands of people who died during the heat wave of summer of 03 – primarily due to bureaucratic ineptitude. Additionally, the question, for France anyway, is one of how many people actually participate in the system that many in the US admire: my understanding is that there are at least 3 different types of insurance – one for the SNCF/RTP, one for anyone who works for the gov’t (fonctionnaires), and one for everyone else. Each sector is very separate, and has different rules for everything from doctor/hospital/medicine use to medical billing/reimbursements.
Larry J: your suggestion that members of Congress live like the rest of us is excellent. Too bad that it will never happen. Too easy to take a private jet to Duke and back!
