Caregivers: Shortchanged around the world

Recently, I rented Michael Moore’s film “Sicko” about the sad state of the U.S. healthcare system. The film was thought provoking, and I was particularly impressed by how some other countries handle healthcare for their people. Personally, I’ve always thought healthcare should fall into the same category as road building and electric power generation. These are things people cannot afford to do for themselves individually and so we provide these services communally through government and utilities. It should be the same with healthcare. If you have a serious illness, your expenses can quickly mount beyond your means. One recent study found that 55 percent of U.S. bankruptcies were related to medical illness or expenses, and these statistics included people with health insurance. I personally know several families brought to near financial ruin by healthcare expenses. Sicko featured segments on national healthcare systems in Canada, England and France, among others. And, even allowing for Moore’s soft focus on the imperfections of these nationalized systems, they looked a lot more enlightened than our devil-take-the-hindmost approach (the “hindmost” in the United States being the more than 45 million medically uninsured). Anyway, it got me wondering how the European countries support their caregivers – or “carers” as they are called over there. I did a little research expecting to find that European carers can call on all kinds of government program...
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