When other countries (outside of the USA) adopted socialized medicine did they do it in steps?

This is quick attempt at a synopsis of a New Yorker article that explains it better than I can.

The gist is that the UK and French health care systems were practical adjustments to existing practice, not massive grand plans implemented with one stroke.

Britain organized the Emergency Medical Service to manage resources during World War II, when bombs were falling and the government paid private hospitals and staff to care for the casualties. The people discovered that having health care on tap for all was good, so they kind of extended the system after the war in the National Health Service.

France came out of the war in ruins and they needed to care for people left destitute and homeless. The only large-scale insurance program was that of the large manufacturers, so they extended it with a nationwide payroll tax. The health care providers are private entities/people, and the finances are handled by local private not-for-profits.

The New Yorker – January 26, 2009 – Getting There from Here

You might say that France & the UK were forced into single payer universal healthcare. The same will be said about us when we arrive there. The sad difference is that we appear to have extra billions of dollars to throw away and a comparatively sizable middle class population to impoverish, both of which were unavailable to European governments at the close of the war.

We have BPJS in Indonesia, equivalent to Obamacare, I guess. All the government did was advertise this and socialize the program to citizen and the citizen will register themselves for the right to use it. This is well known for those with lower income, those with more money generally don’t get to use it (even though it’s advertised to be used for all) as they themselves can afford for better, more sophisticated hospitals not run by the government.

^^Doesn’t sound the same as Obamacare. Is the healthcare free that you can sign up for?

It’s mostly free, @JLeslie. You’ll just have to pay a very low percentage of money to be treated (or completely free if you can show your ‘poor certificate’, for lack of term) with the system. Which is why, it’s embarassing for those with money to use this system as they feel like they’ll be lumped in with poor citizen.

^^Obamacare isn’t free, in fact most plans in the system are very expensive. If the person dies t earn a lot of money the government helps pay for it, but if the person makes too much money there is no help.

@JLeslie so if you have a catastrophic disease you go bankrupt with your spouse.
.
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Good choice on paying for healthcare.

Oh don’t get sick ever ! With no Obamacare..

@Tropical_Willie I’m not sure what you are asking me. All the ACA plans have a ceiling for how much you need to pay out, and the rest is covered, so in those plans people are more protected from going bankrupt, UNLESS you have a plan that requires in network doctors and your care was out of network. Uh oh. Or, if you are denied coverage for another reason. The ACA plans have more protections against denial of coverage though, but not perfect.

@JLeslie

If you don’t have Obamacare and catastrophically ill, your ass is in the wringer.
You get to meet bankruptcy lawyers.

^^Tropical_Willie I want a better way, not to put people out in the cold. I’m not fighting for no healthcare, just the opposite.

Do you use the ACA marketplace?

There was insurance before Obamacare, but the system sucked, so I’m certainly not fighting to just reverse course back to how it was, I want to move forward. Like Pelosi said, let’s put it in action, and see what’s in it. Now, we have seen, and it is time for a tweak.

Medicare and supplemental.

Better way is universal healthcare which the GOP leaders call SOCIALISM. (Oh, that cuts in to Big Pharma and Big Insurance profits)

^^I want socialized medicine, but it doesn’t change that the government needs to get at the cost if healthcare whether it’s sicialized or not. If they don’t then it will still be too expensive, that doesn’t change! “Universal” care, the term of late, seems to be able to include still working with private insurers, letting companies set prices wherever they want, so we will continue to be screwed, unless the public does something significant at the grass roots level.