American Views Abroad


Saturday, July 30, 2005
 
An urgent appeal for donations to help pay the unbearably mounting medical expenses of an uninsured American citizen in the U.S. fighting advanced colon cancer was sent out by a member of the Munich American Peace Committee. Damu Smith, a community organizer and social activist, who spoke at the American Voices Abroad conference in Prague in 2003 is fighting the battle of his life and needs help from others. Information about his plight including a Washington Post article about it can be read at www.thepraxisproject.org/damu.html.

Coincidentally, today's IHT carries Paul Krugman's column on French Family Values. He starts off by pointing out how
Americans tend to believe that we do everything better than anyone else. That belief makes it hard for us to learn from others.

It doesn't get any truer than that. Have I ever been asked, when back in the US, what life is like in Europe; is there anything they do better than we do; when comparing both societies what are the pros and cons of different ways of doing things? No, not really. Once in a great while an individual is interested in one aspect or the other. Overall, there is a disconcerting lack of curiosity about other places. If anything, it seems to get worse instead of better. My accent is the main topic of conversation, at first, since it takes me about a week to get back into sounding true blue American. Later, people are confused that I live in Germany but don't sound like one. Very often when I hand over a European issued credit card, I get asked with some disbelief 'What are you doing over there?' Last time around the question 'Do they all hate us?' was posed a number of times. Troubling for me was the absence of any dialogue on the war in Iraq or the prison abuse scandal, but lots of talk about hurricanes and the weather. Of course, I do get ribbed on the lack of Sunday shopping, no 24 hour supermarkets open, on the smallness of it all over here. Krugman points out the big difference in priorities between the French and US societies: '...to the extent the French have less income than we do, it's mainly a matter of choice.' He then goes on:

The French family, without question, has lower disposable income. This translates into lower personal consumption: a smaller car, a smaller house, less eating out. But there are compensations...... schools are good across the country and .....with guaranteed access to excellent health care, no worry about losing health insurance or being driven into bankruptcy by medical bills.

Choice and convenience are two words most used to describe the American way of life. Yet, I am perplexed at the sore lack of choice in the political arena in the US. Here in Germany where new elections will most likely take place on September 18th, there is more choice than at home. A new left party has just been organized of disgruntled SPD members and the former Communist Party, there is the SPD of Chancellor Schroeder, the Green Party, the center right Christian Democratic Union and its sister party in Bavaria, the CSU, and a small liberal party, the FDP and assorted other parties which, by the way, all have equal share of advertising time on TV. It's most interesting watching the very minor parties and their not so professional spots.

One thing none of the above parties will make any attempt to do is privatize health care. There is a national dialogue on the changes that need to be made within a society that is growing older and with high unemployment. However, the debate is whether to convert to the Swiss model of individual citizens all paying the same fees into it or restructure the present system. One of the most convenient aspects of life here is being able to sleep at nights because you don't have to worry about going bankrupt in case of illness. My husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's last year. It took six weeks from his initial visit to his primary care doctor for him to see a neurologist, have two brain scans, and more appointments with other specialists. His extra cost for all this was 10 euros. He missed no day at work, was encouraged to have a positive outlook because his is easy-to-manage at the present time and he can continue working for a number of years. The very high price of all medicines he has to take for it are paid for by his public health insurance, with the exception of the first 20 euros. Last, but not least, he made the choice of which doctors to consult. Twenty years ago when he started up his own company, he could have transferred over to a private health insurance. However, he has always believed in a good, solid public one and he has never regretted his decision.

Krugman's column can be read at: www.iht.com/protected/articles/2005/07/29/opinion/edkrug.php

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