As we consider national healthcare proposals, we would do well to keep in mind the experiences of the Europeans. In the European Union there are all manner of nationalized programs to combat health inequality. They think that "society is killing us."
One might think they've solved their health problems so we should follow suit. Surely they've overcome what the World Health Organization bemoans, "Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale."
Remember that the Europeans don't believe so much in equal opportunity -- the so-called level playing field -- as in equal outcomes, or results. For health, that means the civil government is
supposed to make sure that, for instance, the doorman living in inner-city Glasgow lives as long as the executive who commutes home from the city to a rural area.
So have they achieved these outcomes with their brand of socialism? A great place to look for this is the Nordic countries such as Sweden and Norway where they score well on good health and social cohesion.
As reported in an article in European Voice, the European Journal of Health states, “Despite high living standards and egalitarian policies, fundamental social inequalities continue to exist in the Nordic countries.” François Décaillet at WHO's European regional office is stunned, “I cannot explain it. I am shocked to see very large inequalities in health, despite all the efforts made.”
So what the Northern Europeans haven't been able to do with their homogenous societies and mandatory egalitarianism, we should be able to accomplish here?