The truth is Germany has
Universal Health Coverage
It also has:
- Low Unemployment 3.1% (US is 3.5%)
- A large surplus 1.8% (US is 4.6% deficit)
- Highly educated workforce (free third level education)
- Large immigrated population
- Good Environmental Standards
- Strong social safety net
and on average wages($44000 for single person) (US or Germany) they pay less tax (very marginally) than a US Citizen.
Also twenty years ago Germany reunited which caused a major recession.
Scratch your head around that one for a while. Is the US continuation down the right wing trickle down method really working?
Low unemployment: yes
Large surplus: yes, but remember, the budget must be balanced, this is to say, the government is not a private business trying to make profit. 1.8% is between accepted parameters for a budget. On the other hand, 4.6% deficit is considered unacceptable in other countries, and in the 70's banks used to force countries with such kind of deficits to increase their inflation in order to pay "on time" their debt.
Highly educated workforce (free third level education): yes, you can tell about it when you travel to Germany and talk with people, they show intellect and manners. (Well, as it is understood, this impression of mine is based solely in a certain area, I can't tell about the whole country)
Large immigrated population: You better read this: (I have removed the link address, but in the search engine copy and paste the following
Angela Merkel "multiculturalism in Germany has utterly failed" This is a problem here in the US as well. When immigrants travel from country to country and settled on the new land, they are supposed to assimilate themselves to the society of the land. The main problem is when immigrants try to make "their own society" inside the native society of the land. In this case, the most appropriate word is "invasion" instead of "immigration". It is acceptable for immigrants to keep their customs as long as those won't interfere with the rest of the established customs of the country. I have encountered several immigrants who don't consider themselves as "Americans" but keep their nationality as their identity, even when they officially became US citizens. And worst, they teach their born US children to identify themselves as of the nationality of their parents. This is a problem in Germany as well, the great majority of Muslims reject to assimilate to their new place, and on the contrary, they try to make their zone as a small foreign "nation". Merkel just noticed the error made when they didn't care about this situation from the very beginning. The best was to split immigrants into several areas located at great distances from each other, and doing so, one immigrant or family "per town" should have speed their assimilation to the German society without problems. I just say.
Good Environmental Standards: yes. But I prefer to call it "cleanness environmental standards". You must be aware that they don't do it much because
they want to but because
they have to. If you don't have oil in your land, then of course you will look for other sources of energy. Simple. It happens that in Europe they have no other choice but look for alternative energy sources which must be manufactured in a convenient way for their economy. But here in the US, the most convenient way is using oil as the source of energy, here oil can be obtained just by drilling the floor. Even when "logic" is not accepted to validate a scientific argument, in this case, well, it is "logic" having the US exploiting oil like crazy because it does help to the economy... I don't say for the country in general, but for the "economy". (Someones are getting rich, not everybody)
Strong social safety net: I don't know what you mean kemo sabe.
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In my opinion, because this is not a topic for politics even when politics is what rules its whereabouts, universal health care must be funded not by income tax or salary deductions but by taxes on -lets say- gasoline.
You increase a 25% or much more tax to every gallon of gasoline and you have enough funds to cover universal health care for everybody -even tourists if they get sick or have an accident between the borders of the US- and perhaps you can add dental care, vision, and I guess will be leftover funds to vaccinate your pets... but not enough for your manicure, pedicure and similar. Don't push it.
In my opinion, I consider to exploit the main source of daily currency transaction, which is buying fuel for all kind of vehicles and trucks.
What you save paying every two weeks or monthly payments in health care, will be paid every time someone buys fuel. Even buses -from government- buy gasoline/diesel at the pump station.
I think this is how a Universal health Care could be accomplished in the US. I know you will find an error in my thoughts, but my intentions are guided to find a way to reach such a goal. That's all.
