Reflection Blog 9

I found the information in the article “As Good As it Gets” to be very interesting. I really liked hearing about the differences in health care between the U.S. and the Netherlands. This article does make it seem like health care in the Netherlands is really good. When hearing about the perks it does sound really nice, little to no copayments for medication, and they don’t pay very much, or anything for serious medical treatment. Here in the U.S. people can pay thousands of dollars yearly for their medications, and even more for serious medical treatments. The article compared when two different people had major surgery, one in the Netherlands, and one in the U.S. The one in the Netherlands didn’t have to pay anything, not a single dime. The person in the U.S. had to pay 20% of what the total costs was, which could be thousands, and that is not including the medication. One might ask how do the Dutch afford this type of health care system? The answer: Taxes. The income tax rate of a household earning 60,000 a year is 52%. That’s right 52%. The U.S. income tax rate for 60,000 a year for a household of four is 25%. Another difference between the health care systems is the wait time before major operations. In the U.S. a person does not need to wait long before getting the medical treatment they need, a day or two at the most. In the Netherlands those awaiting major surgery can wait for 14 weeks before a time slot becomes available. In the U.S. we pay to be able to have prompt surgery. I think it would be interesting to see if this type of proposal as made to the U.S citizens, having the majority of your health care paid for, but paying extremely high taxes if they would go for it, for the whole country to pay each others medical bills through taxes. I am not so sure if I would want to go for it myself.