Different Slants

When talking about the US, the first question I get from most Europeans is: “Why don’t Americans want health care?” Every country in the European Union has a national health care system that covers all citizens. Reciprocal agreements are in place that allow any EU citizen to be treated in any EU country.

The implementation of these systems vary widely from country to country but they all offer free, universal care. Free means there is little or no cost for service, the system is funded through some sort of tax. In all the countries I have visited, no one I met was satisfied with their health care system but, no one would consider giving it up and going to a market based system either. My first exposure to national health care was in 1972 in Afghanistan. There I met an American woman who needed a smallpox vaccination. She went to a doctor in Herat for the treatment. Afterwards, when she asked the charge, she was told health care is free in Afghanistan. This was before the Soviet invasion.

by Robert M. Katzman © September 9, 2020

In the Summer of 1989, in Chicago’s Boy’s Town, I was standing inside of my world travel bookstore at 3229 N. Clark Street, eating a buttery croissant from a local bakery. It was flakey and delicious.

But then, right in front of me on Clark Street, a few hundred feet north of Belmont, two men began a fist fight. They were really whaling away at each other and I decided to step outside and see how this situation turned out. I put my flakey croissant inside of my pants pocket for safe-keeping.