Most Americans have health insurance. Of the ones that don’t:
1/3 are illegal immigrants. Those folks would be excluded from the universal healthcare system of nearly every EU country. France and Spain are the exceptions, but France is under a lot of pressure to scrap that.
1/3 are eligible for Medicaid but haven’t signed up.
1/3 can afford Obamacare premiums but choose not to buy insurance. The Obamacare premiums are capped at 9.5% of income. That’s about the same as the employee-side healthcare tax would be in France or other countries with universal healthcare.
Migrants are not excluded from healthcare in most EU countries. They are on special schemes, A.M.E. in France. In fact, as an Australian resident I came back to a French hospital (after expiry of my SSN / a consultation is cheaper in France), and after seeing the doctor, they said they couldn’t establish the bill without current SSN and would have to... call me back. I’m the kind of guy who really wants to pay (It was just 120€, on an Australian salary), so I did give them my real name, email, phone, but the scene was surreal. “I want to pay you. Here is money to pay France, please take it.” —“No”
As I said, France and Spain are the two exceptions. In the U.K., for example, illegal immigrants can access the NHS only for urgent care, similar to the situation for hospitals in the US.
Yes, but vastly different. Universal health care certainly won't come with a dozen pages of fine-print. It doesn't have pricing levels either. You won't hear: "Oh, you should've chosen our premium plan for that!".
That's true. The tradeoffs are different. There will be procedures you can't readily get, and more complexity in getting others. Some of those are procedures you shouldn't be getting in the first place. You'll have far less control over your own care, but most people weren't taking advantage of that control in the first place.
I guess I misunderstood you? Because that's what I'm saying. That it would require substantial wealth to be able to have significant control over your own care.
1/3 are illegal immigrants. Those folks would be excluded from the universal healthcare system of nearly every EU country. France and Spain are the exceptions, but France is under a lot of pressure to scrap that.
1/3 are eligible for Medicaid but haven’t signed up.
1/3 can afford Obamacare premiums but choose not to buy insurance. The Obamacare premiums are capped at 9.5% of income. That’s about the same as the employee-side healthcare tax would be in France or other countries with universal healthcare.