The landmark health care reform legislation passed by the US Congress on Sunday promises to be the beginning of further reforms in the health care industry that guarantees that an additional 32 million Americans will receive affordable medical care by 2019 regardless of their income. The Democrats, however, continue to be hammered for this “un-American” and “socialist” approach to health care. It's ludicrous to suggest for even a moment that legislation designed to guarantee all Americans health coverage under government supervision is the road to socialism. Clearly the existing free-enterprise system in which health insurance companies have complete control is not working. Yet some Americans rather see their neighbors suffer than have the government put in place a sensible and equitable program. Most Europeans, who enjoy the benefits of nationalized health care and view it as their right, look at these overwrought, emotional arguments against government-supervised health care with disbelief. Although criticism of Saudi Arabia's “backwardness” from certain quarters is loud and persistent, the Kingdom has a distinct edge over the United States: Mandated health care for all residents. And by residents, I just don't mean Saudis, but expatriate workers that number at least 6 million. Although we don't call it nationalized or socialized health care, the Saudi Ministry of Health, and to a lesser extent the Ministry of Defense and Aviation, the Ministry of Interior and the National Guard provide primary health care at about 2,000 medical facilities throughout the country. In addition, preventive care and rehabilitation also are provided. Consider this: A Saudi living below the poverty level and suffering from terminal cancer will receive around the clock care no matter what stage of the illness. If the patient lives in Jeddah but needs treatment in Riyadh, not only is there a bed available to him, but he is entitled to free transportation via aircraft to Riyadh and is permitted to have a relative accompany him. Lodging for the relative will be provided as part of the coverage. Further, there are no cost-sharing requirements for the patient or his family. What Western insurance company provides such benefits? As a Saudi citizen and an international university student I enjoy an embarrassment of riches in health care coverage that no American can possibly dream. I have full coverage, like any Saudi, under the Ministry of Health. While studying abroad I have full medical coverage under the Ministry of Higher Education. As an international student and legal resident of the United Kingdom I am covered by Britain's National Health Service. International university students employed by the National Guard have additional coverage. Expatriate workers are protected as well. All Saudi employers are mandated by the government to provide medical insurance to their foreign employees and their dependents. The Saudi government sets aside 11 percent of its total budget for health care. The health care budget is obviously funded from government revenue but not by taxing its citizens. Naturally, US taxpayer costs to fund President Obama's health care reform package remains a major theme among Republicans. Granted, I don't pay a single Saudi Riyal for my health coverage, but the US government's own Congressional Budget Office estimates that when the key aspects of the law take full effect in 2019, the overall cost to the US taxpayer for health care will be only about $25 billion more than if no health care reform was enacted. Further, health care costs to individual families could fall as much as 30 percent, according to the US Congressional Budget Office. For all the shouting, handwringing and boorish behavior from American conservatives who complain that the new health care law curbs Americans' freedoms, they seem to have forgotten the Four Freedoms championed by their own president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 69 years ago: In addition to the US Constitutionally protected freedoms of speech and religion, there is the fundamental right of freedom from want and freedom from fear. American conservatives have already stripped much of the West of freedom from fear by whipping up hysteria over imagined threats of communism, socialism and fascism creeping in democratic societies. And now they are ignoring the fundamental right that any person regardless of his station in life is entitled to health care. Roosevelt may have had poverty on his mind when he articulated America's right to freedom from want in his 1941 State of the Union address, but in the 21st century affordable health care deserves the same consideration as freedom from hunger. As a Saudi woman, it would be intellectually dishonest for me to deny that Americans enjoy almost limitless freedoms while I still can't drive a car or get an education or a job without my guardian's permission. Even the British, who complain often about their Big Brother government, marvel at the totality of freedom that Americans enjoy. Yet the temper tantrums displayed by the mob at the US Capitol last weekend as the health care reform bill was debated and ultimately passed, illustrates a breathtaking example of selfishness and lack of understanding of just how the rest of the world admires the US government for its willingness to reform itself. Next week I will walk into a Saudi government hospital without an appointment, consult with my doctor after only a few minutes' wait, and receive treatment without ever opening my wallet. I have it pretty good. Can the millions of employed Americans who have no health insurance say the same? – SG The writer can be reached at: [email protected] and her blog is: www.saudiwriter.blogspot.com __
