Health Care: Change It Or Tear It Down
People in the United States and Western Europe are broadly dissatisfied with their health care systems, a new poll shows, with Americans even more upset than Europeans.
More than 4 in 5 Americans say the U.S. health system needs fundamental changes or even a complete overhaul, according to the poll by Harris Interactive for the International Herald Tribune and France 24 television. And those who say it needs to be completely rebuilt outnumber those who are basically satisfied by nearly 3 to 1. No European country is even close to that level of desire for change.
“My perception is very favorable, even though the cost is considerable,” said one person surveyed, Francesc GarcÃa of Barcelona. “The importance of having a good and universal public health service, free to all citizens, justifies the investment.”
“In some Central European countries, the health systems are not so bad, Slovenia included,” Jansa said. “The accessibility of our health system is quite high and people don’t have the impression that they are not treated equally.”
He said that the perception of inequality might be higher in Western Europe, but that those countries still provided some “very good examples,” including public-private partnerships.
“And, of course, we should be aware that we, in the future, in the European Union and all of the member countries of the European Union, will have to spend more on the health care systems,” he said. “It is unavoidable.”
In the United States, health care is expected to be a major issue in the elections in November, and Hillary Rodham Clinton has made it a major part of her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, which has been fading.
Clinton and her opponent for the nomination, Barack Obama, have endorsed moving toward universal health care. Clinton has called for a government mandate that all individuals sign up for health insurance, while Obama has urged such a requirement only for children. By contrast, the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, opposes mandates and wants the U.S. government to help states create insurance pools for those who are now uninsurable.
Strongly dissatisfied with their health care system, Americans who participated in the poll showed a tendency to take matters into their own hands. When presented with a list of a variety of methods to improve their health, ranging from limiting salt intake to performing yoga, Americans reported doing seven of them on average. The French and the Spaniards fell between six and seven, while the rest fell between five and six. The most popular methods? Drinking more water and eating more fruits and vegetables.
Americans were also more likely than Europeans to seek solutions through health care products, with vitamins being the most popular. Only 21 percent of Americans abstained from such remedies, the lowest figure among the six countries surveyed. Runners-up were the French, who were more likely than others to use homeopathic products, and the Spanish.
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