If government run health care is so bad then how come Scandinavian countries have the most content population?

Question

If government run health care is so bad then how come Scandinavian countries have the most content population?

Answer 1

I lived in Denmark. I paid 48 percent in taxes but never cared. This is because my standard of living was so good. My wages were 4 times as much as they would be here for the same job, so I actually made more money. The medical system is second to none. In fact, many medicl innovations come from there.

One day I had to be rushed to the ER due to an accident at work. I was in and out in 45 minutes with Xrays, my pain medicine, a sling for my arm, everything! I would have been in the ER for hours if I were in the US. I received great follow up care after. I had my regular doctor there who I chose. Its hands down a fantastic health system.

Its no wonder the birth mortality rate is lower and the life span is longer.



When these people say crap like there are no minorities or illegals, it is laughable. In Denmark immigrants and illegals make up a much higher percentage than in the United states.

Try making up more lies laddies!

Answer 2

Oh my ******* (non-existing) god.



I have never in my entire life time ever seen so much bullshit on one page before. Not even in a joke.. not even in a page showing all the.. humorous statements of GwB. These answers fits what should stay on fox news.



You ppl, almost all of you, have no idea what you're talking about. The guy who says he has been in the Nordic region (actually he said Scandinavia but he doesn't know what that is, just like the rest of you) lies.



Basic lessons:



Scandinavia - Sweden, Norway and Denmark.



Nordic region - the three above + Finland and Iceland (look it up on wikipedia if you don't believe me; a Scandinavian)



Socialism - An economic system that has never been used by anyone.



Communism - Another economic system that has never been used by anyone (and they are NOT the same, without knowing what they are that should still be obvious, even for an idiot, since they have different names).



My comments to your "answers" (meaning text containing nothing but propaganda with lies and bullshit):



The Scandinavian countries does NOT have the highest suicide rates in the world, neither is in the top 30 and although the suicide rate actually is higher than in the US the difference is ridiculously small.



The health care here is actually over all better than in the US. There are only two fields where SOME (meaning a few; meaning A LOT less than half) US hospitals beats us (early births and SOME (meaning A LOT less than half) cancer treatments). Yes some ppl have to stand in line, those cases you talk about usually ends up in the national newspapers since they are so outrageous and unusual enough to write about. I have had health care here and haven't stood in any line. Your health care still costs you three times more and considering that your health care is overall worse I think it's weird that you don't ask where the money goes. 50 000 000 citizens can't afford health care, millions more have insufficient health care and 11 000 citizens die every year because of that. Great system! *cough-bullshit!-cough*



The sales tax is 25% on most things. For food and drink it's 6% and 12% for books and newspapers. We also earn more money than you.



The rich ppl (who are very few) that goes to the US for care goes to the best hospitals in the world, which neither of you writing here will ever use, because they don't pay taxes in Sweden and aren't allowed to get free health care here.



We aren't dead and I don't think he says that happy is = dead.



Tax rates has nothing to do with happiness. We pay more taxes but we also pay less bills than you. Example: We pay the second least corrupt government in the world for health care that we are guaranteed to get not matter what, we can't be denied. No matter what preexisting conditions we have we still get free health care. You pay for profit insurance companies to get health care from for profit hospitals (ok THAT isn't totally true) that has doctors that really likes money.



Norway is to 99% run by hydro eclectic power, Sweden 50% nuclear power, 45% hydro, wind and solar and 5% coal (Denmark about the same).



Only Norway makes money out of its natural resources (it is also the only country that has any oil or gas). Sweden has lots of iron but we don't really sell any. We sell technology (the worlds' three most technology achieving countries per capita: USA, Japan, Sweden), heavy machinery and stuff like that.



We have not come to any kind of conclusion that we "can't continue on their socialist path". We don't even have any right wing parties ffs. Your democrats are so far to the right that there is no party in the entire Nordic region that is anywhere close to them. Our "right wing" haven't even touched (and according to them they never will) our "socialist" (haha.. oh if you had any idea what the differences are between communism, socialism and social democracy.. idiots.. I mean how is it possible that you don't know?! It's BASIC education, which I got for free) policies.



Highly educated fleeing from the country? There are so many delicious ways I can comment that.. making you look stupid is my favorite approach so I'll go with that. You see when you have the best educated population in the world it's kind of hard not to have more highly educated ppl among the emigrants than among other countries. Like the US for example. 17 or 18 % of all Americans have college or university education, which is very good compared to most of the world. Sweden? 35.5% of the population. Highest in the world. Norway comes second with 29.5%, Denmark I've forgotten, think it is about 27%. Then there's also the overall quality of the education, which is much better in north western Europe and far eastern Asia (Japan and South Korea). Probably also Australia and New Zealand but I'm not sure. Japanese and South Koreans have the highest IQ in the world. They even beat us. A funny fact is that the average Swede has a three digit IQ while the average Americans' is two digit. Then there's language. English is my second language (sorry for my horrible English), German my third and starting in August Japanese will be my fourth. How good are you at speaking your second language? Do you even have one?



A.. funny? interesting? coincidence is that Sweden is the most atheist country in the world, the other IQ top countries aren't that far behind.



Under communism it's impossible to have dictatorship. There is no government under communism. Say after me: "there has never been a socialist or communist nation. I will never watch fox news again and every time I listen to someone who is a strong supporter of the republicans (or a very very strong supporter for the democrats) I will look up what he/she has claimed and immediately assume that it is BS."



To counter that BS I'll just say that I know Americans who feels the same way here. It's all about what suits you, neither system is actually wrong (since right and wrong are subjective decisions and opinions and are never actual facts ("it's wrong to kill" is not a fact, it's a personal opinion of the person saying it, personally I think it's wrong to use a system that kills 11 000 ppl annually for no other reason than being poor) and we really do know other ways of life.. unlike you we are aware of the outside world (generally speaking ofc, even we have idiots).



There is no such thing as the best country in the world you nationalistic idiot.



WOW. No illegals, no minorities that "who insist on being welfare mooches that insist you owe them a living" and a population that "never gives any of the citizens assets to foreign enemies, then it is easier to manage a budget and find people who will give real services cheap". Is there such a place? :O Well too bad for me. You see the country I live in has this thing called mass immigration. for the past 30 years we have made it easier for ppl to get here from really poor countries. 17.6% of our population was born abroad or has two parents that were born abroad. They don't work and think that we should give them all our money. They are criminal scums that destroys society. Sweden is the most aid giving nation in the world per capita. We give a record 1.02% of our GDP to "third world" countries. Our neighbors have about the same conditions. Everything is expensive here. Take the prices in New York, add 20% and you have Sweden's' prices, the lowest of the three countries.



Sweden is the most democratic and second least corrupt country in the world (least corrupt last year) (Denmark the least this year and last year). Oh and the most gender equal country in the world.



A 25 hour work week? Oh poor you.. well the ppl you have been work with have been working part time, almost everyone I know work 40 hours a week. My family a lot more than that but we're a.. ehm.. jet-set family (work a lot, buy a lot).



I don't even understand what Eric is talking about in the second paraghraph. Did you know that the first pacemaker surgery in the world was made in Sweden? By Swedes only?

Answer 3

The Japanese have a good universal health care system, as do the Australians, New Zealand and indeed nearly the whole of western Europe.



You can have a successful mix of the private and public, and universal health care does not have to be some centrally run socialist system, with many universal systems largely run and indeed operated by the private sector rather than Government.

Answer 4

They must be deluded.



First of all, Obama wants to make insurance more available to all. And change the system so that it is cheaper, and also so that the insurance companies find it harder to get out of paying for treatment. The system he is proposing looks similar to that which works in Holland and Switzerland where private companies are involved in providing insurance.



Second, of course universal health-cover sucks. That is why we in Western Europe have it. We think, hmm, our healthcare system sucks. I know, lets keep it. I guess that is the same with Japan and Canada as well.



FACT - the USA spends more on healthcare PER PERSON than any other nation on the planet.



FACT - the US has higher death rates for kids aged under five than western European countries with universal health coverage.



That means that a dead American four year old would have had a better chance of life if they were born in Canada, France, Cuba, Germany, Japan etc, all of which have universal health coverage.



But I guess those facts (backed up by links) must be made up...

Answer 5

We are paying about three times the OECD average for health care, and recieving health care much below average quality. The only people who claim that we have the best health care in the world are those that fundamentally appose universal health care.



Why then, are we paying so much for a system that does not work for Americans?

Answer 6

Ha, most of you guys are hysterical :)



First if all.

NOONE (from Denmark, that is) fly to the US to get "good care" (lol, they're below us on the list over the best healthcare systems). That would just be idiotic to begin with.



Second. Denmark is, uhm, elected as the happiest place on earth. Why? Based on over living standards, in general. Not just because of our universal healtcare system.

We have less worries as we have economic security.



Imagine that.. 50% in taxes, and STILL the happiest country on earth. Guess socialism isn't so bad afterall, huh? :)

Answer 7

I live in australia, we have government run health care and our taxes are not outrageous and we are not a communist dictatorship.

Answer 8

I think the USA is the only NATO-country without government run health care.



The main problem with it, it takes away a lot of income for the insurance companies, and it holds down the expenses at the hospitals when the doctors has to make an estimation: is this test I want to run, something I want to run cause the patient needs it, or because my boss says we make a lot of money on it?



Of course, there are a very small triage-effect, in the sense the very richest does get marginally less (but only marginally less. Se above) health care than with the US system. They might still visit a private clinic for the service they don't get, though, if they are willing to pay for it.

Answer 9

they planned their system many years ago. it took a long time to implement, and had to have the blessing of the majority of the electorate. they did not try to jam it down the throats of the public using a lot of smoke and mirrors, and dire warnings of impending health care doom.

Answer 10

You've hit upon yet another inconvenient truth for the GOP and it's corporate overlords, the Insurance Lobby.

The GOP is in favor of a for-profit system, which bases it's health care decisions on how much money they can make off of you. Also, unlike civilized countries, they believe health care is a privilege, not a right. They have said so many times, and continue to defend their unethical and barbaric behavior.

The most ironic part is that this is the party of moral superiority. They act as if these people living in "socialized" countries are living in concentration camps. And they aren't. They are telling bold-faced lies to the American public in order to continue to make a disgusting profit off of the sick and dying. Bold-faced lies.

Answer 11

Two different countries, two different populations.



Sweden doesn't have a large segment of the population that refuses to work. They don't have the street gang problems or the racial problems we have. They aren't swamped with illegal immigrants.



I suspect that they are among the happiest people in the world, but their happiness isn't because of their health care. It may be directly proportional to the number of hot blonde women in their society, you reckon??

Answer 12

America is not what it is today by being “content” with how things are. We are always striving to make things better. Who will we NOT become if we too become “content”?



I read an article about a Scandinavian man whose mother had bypass sugary and a pacemaker implanted and it did not cost him anything. . I am sure they are VERY content paying pennies on the dollar for what it took to develop all this.



Who developed all that is required for those procedures, at what cost and why? From the plastics to the pace maker. Not to mention all the drugs she did and will need.



How often do you read about an American traveling to one of these countries for some breakthrough medical procedure?



Don’t you wonder why that is?



The Obama plan does NOT address cost. It only address who pays. We need to address the cost first. Getting control of Lotto lawyers would be the place to start.

Answer 13

If you live in a nation with no illegals, and no minorities who insist on being welfare mooches that insist you owe them a living, and a population that actually works for a living and are willing to take on huge responsibilities without monetary compensation, and stays politically neutral in international affairs and never gives any of the citizens assets to foreign enemies, then it is easier to manage a budget and find people who will give real services cheap.

That isn't the America of today with corrupt Chicago Politicians in charge of everything why want to set up an elitist tyranny.

Don't trust American Politicians to manage an ethical administration.

Don't trust anyone with your assets if you don't want to loose them.

Verify every aspect of all laws. Don't trust politicians who push bills through before anyone can read them.

Obama himself (by his own admission) hasn't read what is in his health care bill.

Answer 14

YOU CANNOT define happiness that way. Come on night owl, you can't be that simple. What is happiness?? How do you define it? Will I know it when I attain it, or only when I loose it? Can it be defined differently by different people? And most importantly, who is conducting this poll?



These stupid polls that are coming out from the left are so amusing. Only the simplest mind would except this without any of the above questions. It is an impossible statistic to define.



Hey did you hear the poll? America is the greatest place on earth.

Answer 15

Because their governments are not controlled by weapons manufacturers and special interest group lobbiest for drug companies.

Answer 16

Don’t kid yourself. The Scandinavians are only slightly more “content” than we are, and a major reason for that is they don’t have the diversity we do. In this country, blacks and whites are always at odds. In Sweden, there are no blacks (to speak of). We have many religions. They don’t.



When I was just out of college, I started dating a Swedish girl who worked as a nanny for a neighbor in Connecticut. To make a long story short, we went to a movie and then dropped by my house for a drink. At about 12:00, she said she was tired and needed to go to bed. I got up and headed for the door. She got up and headed for the stairs – to my bedroom. In her culture, sex before bed was almost the equivalent of a goodnight kiss. The next year, the Swede was succeeded by a Norwegian. It was the same. Totally uninhibited, the Scandinavians do whatever pleases them. They are often surprised by how inhibited we are.



If the Scandinavians are so content, why is their suicide rate so close to ours?



BTW, the Norwegian was better than the Swede.

Answer 17

They don't know any different way of life.

I have a friend in Sweden who is just enamored with America and the freedoms we have (for now). He visits my wife and I at least once a year and would like to become a citizen.

Answer 18

Probably because they have the most restrictive labor laws in the world, it's impossible to fire anyone over there and if you do you need to pay through the nose. Thus, people barely put in the equivalent of a 25 hour week at work over there. I'd be content too if I only had to work when I felt like it.

Answer 19

Scandinavian countries have the highest suicide rates in the world. They always have had. How does that make them the 'happiest'?!

Answer 20

if i have rocks in my yard but no tigers, does that mean the rocks keep the tigers away?

There is no reason to link those two things.

Answer 21

if you want to be a socialist then move there & be content. I want to be happy,not just content. I can only do that if I have the choice to do as I want,not as some bureaucrat tells me. that's why people come here.

if you check the stats you will find that the Scandinavian country's are loosing their professional population at an alarming rate. doctors,lawyers,

engineers & others are moving to where they can make more money and live under a less invasive government.

Answer 22

do you really believe the U.S. government can run a successful program? look at all they have done with other programs. we are in debt in trillions because of their bungling and you want more of the same?

Answer 23

Small population with high natural resources per capita, especially Denmark. I imagine if the U.S. could produce 100% of its electrical power via hydroelectric generators and had MASSIVE amounts of oil reserves (Nationalized) to sell other countries we would be doing alright.



BTW, many of those countries are quickly coming to the conclusion they can't continue on their socialist path. It just took them longer than the State of CA.

Answer 24

They have been paying a 25% tax rate for so long that few remember a time when they weren't. It is amazing what people can get used to.



Will you be happier paying twice as many taxes? I certainly won't be, but our grandchildren may.

Answer 25

Have you seen their tax rates or the Medical lines they wait in????



DID you know their wealthy fly to America to get GOOD care!



JUST THINK

Answer 26

You're kidding, right ? Have you been to Sweden ? The ppl stare into space as they pass you on the street. One of the highest suicide rates in the world is in the Scandinavian countries. When you take away incentive to achieve, you take away HOPE !



All those countries have higher suicide rates than the USA

Answer 27

Check out what they pay in taxes. Check out what they pay in vat taxes. (See population.)



Real utopia!

Answer 28

Look up their tax rate.

Answer 29

hummm are you saying happy=dead