The Philadelphia Inquirer's Trudy Rubin normally devotes her Sunday columns to center-left world views, but chose instead this past week to delve into domestic health care policy. Rubin spends a great deal of space extolling the virtues of the government-run, universal health care systems of Germany, France, Switzerland and Japan, yet curiously makes no mention of Britain's National Health Service.
I tend to view essays like Rubin's through a suspicious lens, mostly because such comparisons are far more complex than its authors would have us believe. We also get all of the nougaty-goodness of the big government solution without the accompanying nutrition chart. If we did, we'd see that the mechanism used to fund this European sugar high, taxation, has hit the demographic wall. Consider life expectancy figures for these countries when many of the universal health care plans were put into place, compared to them now:
More people are living longer (good), but draining public coffers due to spending on retirement and health care programs (not so good). Adding to the problem, the global baby boom following the end of World War II that provided the financing for these systems in the 1970's through the 9o's has given way to a baby bust, as replacement birth rates for many of Western European countries are rapidly deteriorating. Europe is beginning to awake to the realization that taxpayer-funded health care is an unsustainable ideal.
I tend to view essays like Rubin's through a suspicious lens, mostly because such comparisons are far more complex than its authors would have us believe. We also get all of the nougaty-goodness of the big government solution without the accompanying nutrition chart. If we did, we'd see that the mechanism used to fund this European sugar high, taxation, has hit the demographic wall. Consider life expectancy figures for these countries when many of the universal health care plans were put into place, compared to them now:
More people are living longer (good), but draining public coffers due to spending on retirement and health care programs (not so good). Adding to the problem, the global baby boom following the end of World War II that provided the financing for these systems in the 1970's through the 9o's has given way to a baby bust, as replacement birth rates for many of Western European countries are rapidly deteriorating. Europe is beginning to awake to the realization that taxpayer-funded health care is an unsustainable ideal.
But perhaps the influx of immigrants to these countries will revitalize the rusting social engine. Perhaps, but consider that many if not most of these immigrants are from Islamic nations, and don't necessarily share the progressive, enlightened views of their host countries. Will the new Caliphate cover sex change operations and contraception? We'll see.
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1 comment:
I've come to the conclusion socialism is a suicide pact. Most of the participants don't know it and the rest don't give a damn.
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