While I can speak of the German system, another American can fill you in on what they have in France:
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In the United States, waiting six hours in an emergency room to receive medical care or five days to get an appointment with a general practitioner is so common that Americans have begun to think "it's just the way things are." This bothers me because, having lived in France for nearly five years, I know that it is not the way things are in France and in many other parts of the world, and it is not the way things have to be in the U.S.
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We've been conditioned by the insurance companies to accept this shit as a way of life.
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Prepared for the worst, I picked up the phone directory for my arrondissement (neighborhood) and scanned it to see if there were any doctors listed. To my surprise, there were a couple of pages of them: pediatricians, gynecologists, chiropractors, and a whole lot of generalists. There were two general practitioners, in fact, within six blocks of my apartment. I dialed the one closest. A woman answered the phone and I stammered that I needed an appointment for a sore throat. She asked when I wanted to come in and I told her, "As soon as possible," thinking, My throat is killing me. I hope I can get in on Monday. She sighed and said that she was sorry, but she didn't have an appointment available right away.
"Could you come in at twelve-fifteen?" she asked.
"Twelve-fifteen on what day?' I replied.
"Twelve-fifteen today," she said, sounding incredulous that I had asked.
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Single payer works well, and the only people you'll hear speaking against it are the insurance companies (and our elected reps whom they've bought) who have a lot to lose.
It's time to quit playing around with these special interests (Are you listening, Mr. Obama?) and give the American people what works so well for everybody else.
