Monday, August 16, 2010

Intelligent Thoughts On The Economy, Unemployment and Presidential Politics

We heard from former Governor Corzine over the weekend.

This Wall Street CEO makes a lot more sense. Read Mickey Gooch's Beside The Point at the Two River Times.
Posted by at

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would love to hear Mickeys take on the United Kingdoms Health care system.

Monday, August 16, 2010 5:28:00 PM
Mickey Gooch said...

The healthcare system in the UK is fine for most people, although recipients have no choice over who their doctor is- You get your doctor based on the NHS office in your neighborhood. If you have additional private insurance coverage you are well taken care of. White collar workers tend to get that coverage from their employers as do Union workers of course. The UK has a worse record than the US on issues like breast cancer detection. And people have been known to die while on the waiting list for a hip replacement etc.
But for the average Joe, they get free coverage and decent care. But of course such a social program does not come cheap. Employers pay a 12% NHI tax on all the payroll with no cap and the employee pays the same 12%. In addition the UK has a VAT of 17% (may even be higher after the last Budget) that is effectively a National Sales Tax.
Of course if a UK resident needs specialist care in certain areas or needs to jump the line, then they fly to the US for the best care in the world.
That begs the question for us in the US, which is if we adopt the UK system that rations and doesn't invest in research like the US, where will we fly to for quality care (if we can afford it)?

Tuesday, August 17, 2010 7:13:00 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)