** Private ** wrote: > Failure to put it on the balance sheet is certainly an issue. But that > is separate from the issue I was discussing which was the impact of > national policy on private economics. In particular, countries which > have a nationalized health care setup (direct or insurance based) > spread the cost out amongst all members of society.
Just among a different set of members. While we have a health care setup with mandatory insurance in the Netherlands I am pretty sure that, after factoring out the number of people that get their insurance premium directly from some sort of subsidy program, the actual percentage of people paying for the normal insurance is less then 80% and the number of people paying for the special risk insurance (long term care, disabilities etc.) is less then 50%. The difference between US health care and Western European health care is not in the number of people paying their share out of private income. The difference is in total spending as a percentage of the GDP, in the repercussions if you are not insured and in the percentage of people that get subsidized for insurance. Or to look at it in a much simpler, macro economic perspective: the bottom line is that the people with a job foot the bill. The simple fact of the matter is that the labor force participation rate in Western Europe is lower then in the US and unemployment is higher. > The system in the > US does not and therefore each company faces different > healthcare-related costs that end up being reflected in the cost of > their products. A company that makes a car in Sweden may have higher > tax rates but they also may save significantly in areas like > healthcare and retirement compared to competitors in the US. But nothing stops a US company from making cars in Sweden. In fact, with Saab being a GM subsidiary, I am pretty sure GM produces lots of cars in Sweden. And a Japanese carmaker with a factory in the US will have the same cost structure as a US company with a factory in the US. > Furthermore, US companies may see significantly more volatile cost > structures for things like healthcare which handicaps them when it > comes to planning and budgeting. The sensible thing to do would be to insure that cost. But then you would have to pay an insurance premium and who would want to do that when you can just keep your liabilities off the books. Jochem ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:274625 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
