Blogger’s Note: There was a recent US academic survey that suggests that the US government – since 1945-present – has killed (via the deployment of its military) around 30 million people world-wide. The reason for this carnival of death has been “regime change” that invariably “removes” any attempts made by poorer countries to initiate a Socialist Revolution. On other words, any regimes that attempts to irradicate debt and re-distribution of wealth is not permitted as it threatens US hegemony – and its control of the global bourgeois (predatory) capitalist system. Part of this transformation is to move away from the injustices of profiteering – and transforming society to end of “inverted” oppression that governs the lives of the people.
Part of this change is that introduction of Universal Healthcare (delivered free at the point of use – and paid for via taxation). The workers choose to collectively pay for their healthcare in advance of any need to seek medical treatment. VI Lenin designed this system in the USSR in 1918 – and was replicated in a left-leaning UK in 1948 (and a number of other Western European countries to varying degrees). Meanwhile, during the Korean War (1950-1953), the Vietnam War (1955-1975) and a host of other countries – all attempting to instigate a Socialist Revolution – the US military blanket-bombed entire civilisations out of existence to maintain the International Capitalist System – killing millions in the process.
The UK Labour government (encouraged by the US), whilst instigating a partial Socialist transformation of Great Britain, the British Army was deployed in Greece between 1945-1949 to destroy the Greek Communists who had been allies of the UK during WWII. Many of the young Greek and men and women summarily executed by British Army soldiers – were themselves wearing British Army uniforms. Meanwhile, whilst the Chinese population of Malaya sought to instigate a Maoist Revolution and over-throw the despotic British colonialist rule – the UK Labour government sent young British Conscripts to assist professional British troops to commit rape, murder, and other atrocities against the Chinese population (between 1948-1960).
During the Korean War, the British Labour Party sent a small British force that was soon over-run. Indeed, one British working-class soldier – taken as a POW – chose to go and live in China. He lived in a Chinese village, married a Chinese woman, and returned with his family to the UK in 1965 (many American POWs chose to live in North Korea – and still do). France, a major pre-war and post-war imperialist power – reddened its hands in Vietnam between 1945-1954. Churchill ordered the British Army to take the Surrender of the Imperial Japanese Army in Vietnam on behalf of the UK’s ally – Ho Chi Minh – then immediately re-armed the Imperial Japanese and ordered the British Army to join this fascist force in suppressing the Viet Minh. The French eventually took-over this fight – losing at Bien Dien Phu – which led to the US entering the war.
All this Western (and US) military aggression was designed in-part to prevent the masses receiving “free healthcare” at the point of use. Many of the rich Americans who retire to France to receive “free healthcare” in their old-age – have spent a life-time voting in rightwing governments in the US that bomb and destroy any and all attempted Socialist regimes. This being the case, why should these people benefit in anyway from the Socialist principle of “Universal Healthcare”? I respect the British Army of WWII – comprised of working-class conscripts and volunteers – but detest the British Army that so quickly reverted to being a ruthless instrument of imperialism immediately after WWII. ACW (2.12.2025)
If lawmakers push to charge retirees for health care, it will especially hit Americans who have made France their home.
December 1, 2025 4:11 am CET
PARIS — Foreign pensioners who dream of spending their retirement under the sun in the French Riviera might have to reconsider their plans if their free health care gets axed.
France wants non-European Union pensioners who are currently benefitting from the public health care system to start paying for it. It’s a move that would particularly affect American retirees, who have flocked to one of Europe’s most generous welfare states not only for its food, scenery and culture, but also, in some cases, for its world-class free health care.
“It is a matter of fairness,” François Gernigon, the lawmaker who put forward the proposal, told POLITICO. “If you are a French citizen and you move to the U.S., you don’t have reciprocity, you don’t benefit from free social security.”
Under French law, non-working citizens from outside the EU who have a long-stay visa and can prove they have sufficient pension or capital revenue (more than €23,000 annually) as well as private health care insurance can, after three months, obtain a carte vitale, which gives them free access to public health care.
At that point, they can annul their previous private health insurance and benefit from the French one. It’s become a popular choice for U.S. retirees in recent years.
But a majority of French lawmakers wants to put an end to that situation and make them pay a minimum contribution.
Lawmakers have not fixed the contribution amount as it will be up to the government to do it later. For Gernigon, the value could vary depending on the level of health care coverage, but it would still be cheaper than private insurance in the U.S. or abroad which, he said, costs around €300 to €500 per month.
The debate comes as France struggles to cut spending and bring down its budget deficit to 5 percent of gross domestic product next year.
Gernigon said he had not yet evaluated how much revenue these new contributions would raise, but acknowledged that his main goal is fairness rather than fixing France’s budget problems.
“This is not what is going to fill the hole in the social security budget,” he said.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 