Health Care - Health Care
- France: "Under a financial anaesthetic" [Economist, 01/12/02]
- French health care system rated first among 191 countries by WHO
- spends under 10% of GDP (US: almost 13% and ranked 37th)
- Most of doctors' fees paid by state insurance; poor and unemployed get free cover
- Problem of overuse; share of GDP has risen by more than a quarter over 20 years
- Future rise in proportion of older people in population
- Germany: "Is it enough?" [Economist, 6/7/03]
- Highest spending as % of GDP (11%) of all European countries in the world.
- Services are free: problem of overuse
- Demographic shift as in France
- Proposed Reforms
Source: BBC news In Graphics: Comparing welfare states http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/business_comparing_welfare_states/html/1.stm - The welfare states of continental Europe and social democratic Sweden seem better at tackling poverty than either the UK or the USA.
- The effectiveness of welfare states in combating poverty is closely related to how its citizens are prepared to spend.
- Sweden, where total state spending makes up 60% of the economy, also spends twice as much on social welfare as the United States.
- Britain falls between the low-spending USA and the high-spending continental European countries.
- The US stands out as the only industrial country which only provides limited government health care benefits -mainly to the elderly.
- Other people must buy private health insurance through their employer.
- Britain's NHS provides a universal service, although not the best-funded one, with particularly generous prescription drug coverage.
- The most dramatic differences in welfare provision occur in regard to unemployment.
- Liberal welfare states like the USA and the UK provide a sharp cut-off in benefits to discourage dependency and force people back to work.
- Germany and France provide generous benefits, and some argue this leads to high unemployment and inflexible labor markets.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
