I was listening to Michael Savage the other day, and he gave a great explanation of why socialized medicine doesn't work. I can't remember what he said word for word, but here is my interpretation of it. :)
He explained that State run organizations have never run as well as private. He used the example of a grocery store. Right now, in the U.S., we have private run grocery stores. They have the freedom to set whatever prices they want, but because they are in competition with other stores, they have to make sure that they have good quality, and good selection. They also have to keep their prices competitive with other stores. If the government decided to take over the grocery industry, we could end up with food lines like they had in Russia years back. The heads of the government bureau decided how many salamis were needed for a certain district, and that is all that was allotted, even if more was actually needed. So what ended up happening is that lines of people would be waiting in hopes of getting at least part of the salami. He explained that yes, in our current system, there is waste. If you go behind a grocery store today in the evening, you will find their dumpster loaded with food that doesn't meet their freshness criteria. But the government, always wanting to save money, will go the opposite direction, and will choose to err on the side of frugality, thereby not procuring enough food to begin with.
Also, think about what happens in your town if too many of the same kind of store are built. Eventually, one is forced out of business. If the government were to take over the grocery business, they would take the bulk of the customers away from private stores, forcing them out of business. Obama says that with his health care reform there will still be private practices. But if the majority of people are getting their health care free (or inexpensively) through the government, then there won't be many customers left for the private practices. Only those who specialize in certain areas of medicine that isn't provided well by the government will survive, and then, because of lack of patients, they will be forced to raise their prices simply to survive. I lived in China and saw first hand how socialized medicine works. The doctors get paid the same amount whether the patient is cured or not. I was just a number to them. And to save money, the government won't spend any money they don't have to on your health care.
The next aspect, which Michael didn't bring up, is that today our Doctors make a pretty good living. Some feel it isn't right that they make so much money from medicine. But we have to remember that they had to put in at LEAST 8 years of post High school education, plus more years of internship just to be able to practice. Their expense for their education, in time, money, and stress, is great. Will it be worth it to doctors to spend that much effort in school if they won't make much money in their profession? Because you know that the government doesn't pay that well.
The scariest thing about socialized medicine to me is that once you introduce socialism, it can penetrate to every aspect of our society. What if the government eliminated private practice law? What about Dentistry? Can you see how insidious socialism becomes?
Socialism is an evil to be fought. One of our former prophets, Pres. Ezra Taft Benson said in 1988, "I testify that wickedness is rapidly expanding in every segment of our society. It is more highly organized, more cleverly disguised, and more powerfully promoted than ever before. Secret combinations lusting for power, gain, and glory are flourishing. A secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries is increasing its evil influence and control over America and the entire world." (Ezra Taft Benson, “I Testify,” Ensign, Nov 1988, 86) I believe that to be true. We must do all we can to fight this tide in our country today.
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4 comments:
I'm living in a country that has socialized medicine and it doesn't work. Plus, I think if healthcare is socialized, then socialism will creep into every other aspect of our lives. I see that here - this whole country is socialized. I could go on, but I'll stop.
Hey! We already have Socialized Education! I've spent just as many years in school as some of these people who are making "too much" and I am still up to my eyeballs in debt, and working a second job to stay afloat, while my wife works, too.
Too much government is NEVER the answer! I've said for some time now that if teachers had the same benefits as politicians, and politicians had the same pay as teachers, we'd have more honest politicians and more happy teachers!
This about the best discourse on why not to have socialized medical care or single payor health care run by the government that I have ever read! You have some good arguments and experience to back up what you say . We too, found the health care system to be wanting while we were in New Zealand. Friends had to wait for more than a year for hip replacement surgery . One friend died after her hip surgery that she had to wait so long for. She had to diet severely in order to lose weight in order to have the surgery too, and I feel she was in a weakened condition prior to surgery due to this.
Gramma
A moments pause would reveal that these arguments are very simplistic D.
Private organisations may do very well running grocery stores but they havent done such a good job running banks recently have they?
In fact the only reason that we still have working economies at all after what happened last year is that governments stepped in with taxpayers money and temporarily "socialised" some of the bigger failures.
European countries generally have a much more sophisticated approach to matters such as Health than you do in the US. We are much more pragmatic.
You want to avoid any idea that your system may be "socialised" as a matter of principle it seems ( actually to people outside the US it often just sounds like a knee jerk reaction)
Over here we take the view that we do what works best.
The result - in the US at least 50 million people cant get health insurance and their access to healthcare is in effect limited to emergency treatment. Many of you are only one job loss away from having no health cover.
Over here we take the view that the health of the whole community is important to us all and that even poor people have a right to the basics of life - not least Health treatment. The result is that we end up with pragmatic mixed systems which contain elements of "socialised" medicine and private enterprise.
To suggest that the only options are either a fully privatised approach or a fully socialised approach is to commit the logical fallacy called the excluded middle.
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