The United States government should implement universal health care modeled after the French system.

First , I must apologize to my opponent about my timeliness, again. I pledge to keep the rest of this debate on a tighter schedule as far as my input. Thank you for your patience. Although I do not understand why my opponent chose to forgo his first round, by not stating a positive resolution, I plan to demonstrate why the US should adopt the French System of Universal Health Care (FSUHC). FSUHC defined - 1.All legal residents of France are covered by public health insurance, as part of their Social Security System's program. 2.Funded by employer and employee contributions, as well as income tax. Income tax has a heavier burden in paying for it, to compensate for relative decrease in wage income, to limit price gouging on the labor markets, and to more fairly distribute system financing among citizens. 3.Virtually all the doctors participate in the system. The French can choose their doctors, and physicians are free to prescribe any care they deem necessary. 4. 4.There are no deductibles in the national system, just modest co-payments. What's more, the sicker the patient, the lower the fees — cancer patients are treated free of charge. 5. 5.The system also successfully mixes public and private financing — most French buy supplemental insurance. 6. 6.Access to health care appears to have produced a healthier nation: France's infant death rate is 3.9 per 1,000 live births, compared with seven per 1,000 in the U.S.. The country has more hospital beds and doctors per capita than the U.S., and a markedly lower rate of mortality from respiratory disease. And France spends less (10.7% of gross domestic product) on health care than the U.S. (16% of GDP). As you can see above, this system is markedly superior to ours. But the most distressing point in why we should use France's example - BusinessWeek studied costs of both systems, and although the French system is in a deficit, and up to 20% of individual income is appropriated to health care, slightly more than half of sick Americans surveyed for their study don't visit a doctor, get a needed test or fill a prescription because of cost. In 2006, the Census Bureau reported that 47 million Americans are without basic health insurance. In the US, health is a business – In France it is a universal right. According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and others, the U.S. is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have universal health care, and our health care system is rated as the highest in expenditure, first in responsiveness, but 37th in overall performance and 72nd by overall level of health (among 191 member nations included in the study). the French system is much more generous to its entire population than the U.S. is to its seniors. It's time that the USA took the health of it's citizens as seriously as it does terrorism. Thank you. I look forward to my opponents response, and apologize once again for the lateness in my posting. References - World Health Statistics 2008: Global Health Indicators. World Health Organization (2008) http://www.cms.hhs.gov... http://www.nchc.org... http://www.medicalnewstoday.com... http://blogs.wsj.com... http://www.businessweek.com... http://www.businessweek.com...