My niece is coming to New Zealand from New York to get a diagnosis for something fairly serious she thinks she may have and needs to know if she has it. If she gets the diagnosis in the States she’s convinced she won’t get health insurance once she (hopefully) gets her new job. That’s sad.

With Jane, I don’t think passing a simple law about pre-existing condition coverage would have been easy. Look at the hold insurers have over legislators (e.g., Lieberman and Nelson). Look at the fear of gov’t legislating anything to do with healthcare.

NZ has a mixture of public/private coverage. Most people pay out of pocket at the GPs and purchase some supplemental coverage. The gov’t subsidizes low-income folks, and catastrophic problems are all covered through gov’t funding from taxes. I haven’t seen the walking wounded or heard the heartbreaking tales about inaccessible and denied health care here as is common in the U.S.

And as for the taxes: this is my 3rd year in the country and it seems as prosperous, entrepeneurial, and inventive as the ‘real’ America. So take heart. This clumsy, compromised attempt at health insurance/care reform will help real people, can be tweaked and improved, and is unlikely to ruin the country.