|Health is not a condition of matter, but of mind| |Written by
Justin Newman, medical student| Free medical care! With the
swirling talk about the health care system in the USA, it has
been interesting for me to interact over the past month with
people who live in countries that have public or government
funded health care. While the idea of a government funded health
care system at first may sound like a very good idea, it is
worth exploring what happens when a publicly funded health care
system is put into place. Both Brazil and Argentina are
countries I have recently been traveling to and talking with
people about their health care systems. Both of these countries
have health care that is funded to a major extent by the
government. Argentina has a complex system with all unionized
workers being covered under one type of public insurance (about
50 percent of the population). Non-union workers, the poor and
the unemployed are covered under the general public health care
system (40 percent), and the remaining