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Re:Confessions of a Congressman by maxerickson on Saturday February 07, 2015 @07:22AM (#9013769)
The US has extensive public healthcare. Medicare and Medicaid are huge programs. I realize there is a fair chance that you mean some baseline universal care, but imprecise terms make the conversation more difficult.

Large corporations are also hilariously micro-socialist in the way health care is provided to workers (partly by government rule, partly because they hire productive workers and can afford to compete with benefits).

Edit: The ACA (Obamacare) was also a big step towards universal care. The funding/payment model is messy, but all someone needs to do in the US to get health coverage now is apply for it and make payments, they don't have to hope they get accepted by the insurance company (and I guess it is also much harder to drop coverage).

Re:Confessions of a Congressman by theiostream on Saturday February 07, 2015 @08:23AM (#9013871)
My notion of "public healthcare" is being able to walk into a government clinic or hospital and get free treatment or appointments as long as you show you're a citizen -- sorry for not having cleared that up.
Re:Confessions of a Congressman by _delirium on Saturday February 07, 2015 @09:15AM (#9014010)
I personally do like the single-payer approach, where you get coverage on a no-fee basis purely by showing you're a citizen/resident; and that's how it's done here in Denmark. But it's not the only way of providing universal care, even in Europe. Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands are typically considered to also have universal healthcare, but it's administered via health insurance, not as a single-payer model with direct state provision of services. There are various options for coverage, but having some baseline coverage is mandatory and intended to be universal (with subsidies for people who can't afford it), somewhat closer to the ACA model than to the Scandinavian or Canadian model.
Re:Confessions of a Congressman by happyscrappy on Saturday February 07, 2015 @08:37AM (#9013902)
Except you said the U.S. doesn't have any public healthcare.
Re:Confessions of a Congressman by theiostream on Saturday February 07, 2015 @08:54AM (#9013951)
I changed my original comment to "public universal healthcare". I once again apologize for the lack of clarity of the original comment, and I hope you understand what my point was.
Re:Confessions of a Congressman by happyscrappy on Saturday February 07, 2015 @07:44AM (#9013796)
Europeans visiting the states are genuinely worried that they will be carjacked, which I always find hilarious. Life is not like the movies or the news.
Re:Confessions of a Congressman by goodcanadian on Saturday February 07, 2015 @01:49PM (#9014887)
It is unsettling the number of Americans I meet that seem to have the same worries in their own country. The level of fear and paranoia is great.
Re:Confessions of a Congressman by happyscrappy on Saturday February 07, 2015 @02:51PM (#9015093)
Americans don't worry about car jackings because they don't have a cartoon view of the US.