德媒投美国医保的犀利评论——英文.docVIP

06/29/2012 The World from Berlin America Has Without a Doubt Become More European The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Barack Obamas healthcare reform on Thursday. German newspapers are calling it a big victory for the president. The news on Thursday that the US Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obamas healthcare reform took many by surprise. Editorialists in Germany, which is home to universal healthcare, remain baffled by the American debate. In a 5 to 4 vote, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the controversial provision requiring Americans to purchase health insurance was not unconstitutional, as its opponents had hoped, but amounted to a levy which Congress can issue based on its constitutional right to collect taxes. In a surprise move, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, long seen as a staunch conservative, backed the ruling and delivered the verdict. German healthcare experts have long had difficulty understanding the debate in the United States because mandatory healthcare insurance has been HYPERLINK http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-attitude-toward-barack-obama-s-healthcare-reform-a-832002.html \o required required for decades in Germany, just as it is in many other European countries. People living in Germany cannot be excluded from health insurance because of previous conditions and, for those who are covered under the public-private national healthcare scheme, their premiums are based on how much income they earn. Opponents in the US argued that requiring Americans to buy insurance is an intolerable intrusion into an individuals right to purchase what he or she feels is necessary and amounts to a move to Socialism, which they reject. But the court argued that the constitutionality of the law is not based on Congress right to regulate commerce, as liberals on the court had argued, but on its power to tax citizens. Proponents argued that health insurance only works if everyone -- sick as well as healthy individua