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Originally Posted by Pierre
Is that "spending" or "funding"?
other countries may well "spend" more, but it is not all "funded" by taxation. like the nhs is.
You need to bottom out the spending /funding definition. France and Germany may spend more because they have some sort insurance element to fund it as well as from taxation.
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It's spending. Let's use France as I looked into that a while back and I think it's not all funded by
direct taxation but ultimately it's enforced insurance that operates like a tax, similar to national insurance. So the majority of people have compulsory deductions from their pay checks as does their employer.
The weirdest thing they do is a top-up scheme you can pay more for that means optical and dental (and a few other things) are covered as well.
I prefer our system as it's simpler and I think it's possible to fall through the gaps in the French one even though in theory those out of work should be covered by a state-provided insurer.
But when we say 'insurance' we're not talking about private insurance like in the United States, it's compulsory and backed by the Government. I think it's what the Americans call 'single-payer'.