Michele Bachmann has become a citizen of Switzerland (she now has dual citizenship because her husband is Swiss). The media has already started asking her if she will be running for office there (which she is eligible to do).
Switzerland, like most first world countries, has universal health care, or what we call an individual mandate. Will Bachmann now work to reverse that in her new country?
UPDATE: Bachmann has decided to cancel her dual citizenship.
5 Comments
Universal health care is not an individual mandate.
Universal health care means the government pays the doctors and hospitals and nursing homes, as much and as long as necessary.
Individual mandate means you are forced to purchase an insurance policy, from a for profit company, and you only get some of your health care paid for. Beyond that you are on your own.
Actually, an individual mandate is a form of universal health care. You are thinking of “single payer”, JamesM. Universal health care means that everyone has access to health care, whether it is paid through taxes or by a mandate to purchase health insurance is a detail.
Hmm… Even for Bachmann, this is bizarre. Makes me wonder — maybe all that “birther” frenzy was actually envy? Is foreign citizenship the new prestige acquisition for the 1%?
How many other Rs have dual citizenship, and is that why they seem so unworried about crashing this country into a wall?
Military service is(or used to be?) mandatory for Swiss citizens. Maybe she did it for the rifle.
The Swiss have government mandated universal health care under which citizens may choose from a number of private insurance plans. The federal government specifies what is to be covered and the rates that are to be charged. The companies compete on level and quality of service, not rates. Rather civilized system, I believe.