That sounds... very abusable. What is the limit?
Sure, but it's probably not as abusable as the US Medicare and Medicaid. $50 billion here, $20 billion there... whee.
how is it abuseable? It takes an immigrant years before they're able to become citizens. It's not as if you can immigrate and immediately get free health care.
that's actually an issue, really..
You don't have to be a citizen. You qualify for health care and the other social services as a permanent resident or refugee as well, iirc. And I think anyone can show up and claim refugee status, granting themselves access to social services while their claim is evaluated. So while one could say that it is abusable in theory, in practice it doesn't happen much (not specifically for the purposes of getting health care, anyway), and it's still a good tradeoff compared to what the US has to deal with.
I didn't say anything about insane people...
But they have their own cells. o_o I can't find a picture of one, but they have closed doors (not bars, actual doors) with small windows. They also don't get cell mates.
What Sayoko meant was that your idea of prisons having to be harsh and be punishment is poor thinking. The purpose of prisons is to protect society by removing dangerous people, and correcting them into normal people before they are released back into society. If you put everyone into horrible prisons like you suggested, they will come out as worse human beings than they were when they committed the crime. Which would you prefer to be your neighbour, given the two options?
National defense in the most cases. That's the official reason, and there aren't many other good reasons for a modern republic. You don't really need to put that much money into an army though. Many European states have very intimidating and advanced combat capabilities yet their military budget doesn't even reach the US budget's ankle.
There's some nifty things we gained from military technology though. Such as modern aeronautics. And don't forget the GPS-system! Very big one.
Also the military is an economic sector that provides work and training for innumerous people. Not all of the military budget is cost.
Actually, Europe (well, some members of NATO specifically) is more pathetic than expected. They were saying how the stuff in Lybia needed military resolution, but in the end, they couldn't deliver and the US had to do most of the work. http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-10/politics/gates.nato_1_nato-membership-nato-council-gates?_s=PM:POLITICS
Yeah, a lot of defense funding is beneficial overall, but spending should be examined and intelligently trimmed. Air conditioning costs in Afghanistan amounting to more than NASA's entire budget, anyone?
*cough*
"Oh no I think I'm sick, I think I'll visit the doctor"
I think one of the main concerns for abuse was that free health care would allow people to waste doctors' time with stuff that doesn't actually need attention. It's true that expensive health care would mean people who need it/should get it may not, but if it's free then doesn't that mean people who don't need it/shouldn't get it might go?
Therefore there needs to be some limit, a floor to how sick you are, before you get admitted to a hospital or allowed to see a doctor.
I think that's what was meant by abuse/limits.
And taxes add to a higher cost of living, which still contributes (albeit probably less so) to a person's wealth (or lack thereof).
Your concern is, well, justified.. but only to a very limited extent. Simply put, while there it's a waste when people overcrowd ERs for stupid reasons here, it also happens in the US.. regardless of how it's paid for.
And in the end, you simply have to face the bottom line fact that despite the US healthcare system being mostly privately funded, the share that the government still has to pay in the end is one of the highest per capita in the world, second only to Germany and Iceland, which I assume are publicly funded to a greater extent: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_hea_car_fun_pub_per_cap-care-funding-public-per-capita
Wikipedia also summarizes this nicely:
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that a record 50.7 million residents (which includes 9.9 million non-citizens) or 16.7% of the population were uninsured in 2009.[1][2] More money per person is spent on health care in the USA than in any other nation in the world,[3][4] and a greater percentage of total income in the nation is spent on health care in the USA than in any United Nations member state except for East Timor.[4] Although not all people are insured, the USA has the third highest public healthcare expenditure per capita, because of the high cost of medical care in the country.[clarification needed][5][6] A 2001 study in five states found that medical debt contributed to 46.2% of all personal bankruptcies and in 2007, 62.1% of filers for bankruptcies claimed high medical expenses.[7] Since then, health costs and the numbers of uninsured and underinsured have increased.[8]