http://frontpagemag.com/2013/borek-volarik/i-lived-through-the-real-obamacare/print/
It was bad in the Czech Socialist Republic — but it wasn’t as bad as in Cuba, where patients have to bring their own sheets to the hospital.!!
In the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic all health care was free for everybody! Oh, what a paradise….well, until you actually experienced the “worker’s paradise,” as the communists proudly called it, in real life.
First, everybody contributed to the cost of the health care, but in a hidden way – through the income tax. There were no tax returns to be filed at the end of year. All taxes were automatically deducted from the gross pay. There were no write offs. The only difference was in marital status and number of children. The young, single people, paid a so-called “ox tax.” That was a bit alleviated by marriage and then every newborn child lowered the tax and generated so called “child bonuses.” The state used the money from the taxes to cover all the state’s spending — health care being one of them.
Well, you get what you pay for, right? Right!
What do you expect from a dentist on a salary set by the state’s pay scales? How about a really ugly crown and no anesthetics (Novocain was in short supply, distributed by the state to dentists by a system of rations on monthly a basis); well, a small envelope with big money…casually left at the receptionist’s desk, would make miracles.
What do you expect from a doctor on a state’s salary? Don’t you worry, you always got your aspirin!