Blog 9

While reading the article "As good as it gets," I was not at all surprised that other countries such as the Netherlands have better health coverage and actually care what happens to the elders. All Dutch citizens have government insurance for medical conditions and nursing home care; 45 million Americans have no health insurance at all. I think the US should have an "old age pension" at 65 as well, whether you've worked all your life or not every persons deserves to enjoy their golden years and not have to worry about paying bills. I feel so sorry for the older people I see still working especially when it's actual labor work. 14 percent of Americans 65 or older, about 4.8 million people in all, are still on the job where as most European workers retire at age 60 or so, taking advantage of pension generosity. I definitely agree with the European attitude, "we're all in this together and sooner or later we're all going to become older and need some help." Of coarse then we have the US's attitude which is, "we're all rugged individualists and we're going to take care of ourselves,not others." Working in healthcare, I always noticed the residents in facilities are typically Caucasian. It made me think that most Hispanics, Asians, and African Americans, "take care of their own." Meaning, instead of putting their family member in a nursing home, they keep them at home and take care of them as long as they can. The Netherlands, like most developed countries, want to help people maintain their independence and avoid going into nursing homes as long as possible by receiving subsidize home visits by health professionals. Although the US is 30 to 50 percent more expensive regarding drugs, hospitals and physicians, the heath status is about the same. The Europeans have lower cost related to medical expenses but the waiting time seems to be the tradeoff. Like much of Europe and Canada the Netherlands is short of hospital beds and medical staff.