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A comment on Your own company? You can do it (2011). Parent comment

Re:Your own company? You can do it (2011) by NicoJuicy on Sunday June 18, 2017 @05:09AM (#14579757)
The author is from Holland. It's safe to say that we ( I'm from Belgium) are much better off in terms of healthcare
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Re:Your own company? You can do it (2011) by charlesdm on Sunday June 18, 2017 @07:29AM (#14580189)
Can confirm. Belgian healthcare is cheap and (mostly) reliable. If I need to get a procedure done, I can get it done.
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Re:Your own company? You can do it (2011) by raarts on Sunday June 18, 2017 @09:36AM (#14580574)
I'm not convinced, even though I keep hearing this a lot:

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Euro_health_consumer_index

Netherlands ranks #1, Belgium #5.

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Re:Your own company? You can do it (2011) by NicoJuicy on Sunday June 18, 2017 @03:01PM (#14582242)
Well, everyone pays for excellent health care. When someone has severe problems, the problem isn't finding care/money. It's the disease itselve ( on almost everything)

I'm not a socialist, but I am a big fan of the system. And the cost of medicine is way lower than the US

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Re:Your own company? You can do it (2011) by gt2 on Sunday June 18, 2017 @05:13AM (#14579767)
Why is that?
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Re:Your own company? You can do it (2011) by pg314 on Sunday June 18, 2017 @08:27AM (#14580360)
Belgium has high-quality care that is accessible to all. Everybody contributes to social security proportionally to their working income (which in my opinion is not fair since e.g. capital gains are untaxed). In return, everybody enjoys complete health care coverage (and other protections, such as unemployment benefits, maternity leave, ...). There is a copay for doctors visits (e.g. 6 EUR for your GP, 1.5 EUR for people with low income) and medical procedures, but there is also a maximum amount a person can be charged for health care in a year (459 EUR for low incomes). Bankruptcy due to medical bills is pretty much unheard off.

According to [1], health spending accounted for 10.9% of GDP in Belgium in 2012, which is much lower than in the United States (which spent 16.9% of its GDP on health). Meanwhile infant and maternal mortality rates in Belgium are about half what they are in the US: 3.6 vs 6.1 per 1000 live births [2] and 7 vs 14 deaths per 100,000 live births [3], respectively. Anybody who argues that the free markets lead to better health outcomes than 'socialized' medicine, is ignoring the data.

By the way, dental care is included in medical care. So we don't have third world country situations like [4] in the US.

[1] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2VeNWmB...

[2] http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.MMRT

[3] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_05.pdf

[4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2017/05/13/the-pai...

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Re:Your own company? You can do it (2011) by sangnoir on Sunday June 18, 2017 @06:41AM (#14580035)
Their healthcare is - to American sensibilities - a bit "socialistic".
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Re:Your own company? You can do it (2011) by BurntSchnitzel on Sunday June 18, 2017 @08:28AM (#14580368)
One word. Europe
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