In sewer ants

John Stossel writes about health insurance as a employee benefit, saying that it is a bad idea and giving his reasons. The same arguments can be used against a national health care system, such as we have here in the Bundesrepulik. National health care is, in my experiences with it, expensive and inefficient. The average worker pays between 13% and 15% of his gross income for health insurance, plus any private "zusatz" insurance he may choose to have to get better care is he or a member of his family should be hospitalized. Then comes the hidden costs, the government portion of the health care.
Hidden taxes are a way of life in Germany, probably in all of Europe. The high gas prices add to the cost of all comodities. The high labor costs add to the cost of all commodities. The labour cost are not only wages, but federally forced benefits, such as the aforementioned health care (the employer must match the employee contribution), unemployment insurance (equally paid by employee and employer), care insurance to assist during recuperation (also equally paid by employee and employer), accident insurance (paid by employer), and retirement insurance (similar to social security, again paid equally by employee and employer).
Add to these costs the union inspired high wages, and you end up with the most expensive labour in the world, and an unemployment rate of over 10%. This is what the democrat party is working for in America.