LONDON — The signature by U.S. President Barack Obama of his health care bill was welcomed by most people in Britain and Europe. Many thought that the provision of health care for those not covered by insurance or whose insurance could not be renewed because of an existing health condition was long overdue.
The arguments of the "Tea Party" opposition — that compulsory insurance infringes on citizens' freedom and amounts to socialist medicine — strike most Europeans as wrongheaded and suggest that the Sarah Palins of America lack human sympathy and are living in a past that they mistakenly idealize.
No Western country has yet found a perfect solution to the problem of providing adequate and affordable health care for an aging population at a time when new, expensive treatments are being developed. Demand could not only outstrip supply but also burden younger members of society with costs they are unwilling to meet.