Gas prices
I hear that gas prices are up in the USA. The same thing here. We are paying a little less than $5.15 a gallon. It costs us a bit more than $100.00 to fill up the van, which gets about 28 miles to the gallon (or 8 liters to 100 kilometers, as they say here). I take the train when I can and ride my bike in town.
I saw the pictures of flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi. Incredible. So many homes destroyed. The same thing here. Though less people were killed, all of central Switzerland was cut off from the outside world last week because of excessive rains.
I read that we can give money to help those who suffered damage from the hurricane. The same thing here. There is an organization called The Chain of Happiness (Chaîne de Bonheur) that collects funds every time there is a disaster somewhere in the world. This time it’s for bailing out the Swiss. And this in itself has caused some problems, since Switzerland is the most insured country in the world.
That’s where the two countries are different. I read on USA Today’s site that 45.8 million people in the USA have no health insurance. We have to have it. If you’re poor, the state chips in and subsidizes whenever needed.
posted by Brady @ 11:06 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Brady:
According to my calculations, that is $ .18 per mile. We pay $.11 per mile in the truck. But I already knew that in the U.S. we pay only a fraction of what the rest of the world pays for gas...
Re. health insurance for all in Switzerland: Does that include immigrants and refugees, who, if memory serves, account for much of the Swiss population? It is true that we have many uninsured and also underinsured here. At my University, for example, there are some graduate students who teach just as many classes the full professors, yet the latter have much better medical benefits. So when a graduate student puts his foot in the wrong place at the wrong time and subsequently breaks his leg and ankle, he must pay directly for many of the services rendered at the hospital. He or she is then lucky if married to a spouse with a real job and a real salary. Otherwise, this person may wish that he or she had subsidized health care.
It is nice to hear that the Swiss take care of their people. Sometimes I wish that we did have here a more thoughtful and uniform health care system in place. It seems that there are many inhibiting factors, mainly, a vast population with an ever-increasing number of legal and illegal immigrants. There is also the pervasive attitude of American Individualism, which, consciously or unconsciously, plays a major role in how we think about social issues such as health care and the ageing.
Your trip sounds as though it was invigorating. I am glad.
Paul
It's good to have a wife that has a real job with real benefits. And it would make sense that Universities help out their stumbling grad-students that make going to school such fun.
There are many illegals here in Switzerland and a large number of refugees. Some come for safety, others for economic reasons. They are often taken advantage of by employers and they also take advantage, unfairly, of the system, at times. They often have to go through the same processes that we have in the USA, i.e., emergency medical care, free clinics, etc. For everyone else, there is a minimum health insurace requirement. You are free to choose the insurance company you desire. However, the state will pick up the bill if you don't have the cash to pay for it.
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