Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Socialist Healthcare

How many people in this country expect subpar medical treatment on a regular basis? Compare that to the number who expect excellent care.

Socialist healthcare exists throughout Europe. Way back when, sometime after WWII, all those post-utopian governments (excuse my sarcasm) decided to take the healthcare field out of private hands. From across the pond and from the north, we are bombarded with horror stories involving killer waiting lines, denial of expensive drugs, denial of service due to age or likelihood of living, and deteriorating technology. The citizens of these countries flock here for treatment they're denied at home. Why are we emulating them?

Just because some people insist that healthcare is a right (it's not) does not make it not subject to the laws of supply and demand, like any other good or service. Therefore, the best way to maximize care is enact policies that maximize incentive for supply. If the government was really interested in providing more care, they'd lift all taxes on medically related fields.

Cost-cutting in healthcare is currently done by the private sector and their desire for profit. "Cost-cutting" in the state's hands will be paid in lives and suffering. They are, afterall, the resultant of medical care rationing.

Medical care is too expensive? According to whom? Surely not the patient paying for life extending drugs, for an open-heart surgery, for a new set of teeth, for skin grafts. This argument from the left is absurd but ever so persistent.

The cost of nationalized healthcare will be astronomical. The debt is already unmanageable. It's clear Obama doesn't care about people, about patients, about posterity; even those Republicans in denial figured that out after the first month of his administration. As a nation, we cannot afford this program even if it were healthful . Obama knows that. Apparently he has reckoned that crushing debt and a valueless dollar are no reason to impede his aims.

On a personal note, as the recipient of extensive (and expensive) medical care as a very young child, care that saved my life, I do not want my children born into a tyranny where cold, politically motivated bureaucrats decide who live and die. Keeping abreast of the news emanating from socialist healthcare systems and seeing first hand the treatment provided to friends in Canada, I very much doubt I'd be typing this message today had America followed this deadly lead in the years following the war. Barack Obama, if by some chance in hell you step down from your throne and come across this blogger's post in a lonely corner of the internet, remember that the blood of all those denied care will be on your hands for generations to come should this plan pass.