Several recent stories give new reasons for concern around socialized medicine (which is also called 'universal health care'). First, let me recap what it is. Universal health care -- exactly what all of the Democrat presidential candidates are proposing -- is a disastrous model for something so critical as health care.
First, it's anything but 'free' because your taxes will skyrocket to pay for health care products and services. Second, when health care becomes 'free' to anyone walking in off the street, the demand for everything will skyrocket. The slightest sniffle will result in a run for antibiotics, and so on. When demand exceeds supply, you'll see taxes continue rising to cover the additional products and services being dispensed. When prices/taxes get so high that even Congress is reluctant to continue raising them, the only recourse left is to limit the supply artificially. This will cause longer waiting times for even the most routine procedures and medicines, often stretching out to months; specialized procedures will become exceedingly rare. At this point, you'll also see decisions being made on the most 'worthy' recipients of certain procedures and medicines. Too fat? Smoker? Got diabetes? Sorry, you can't have that procedure. You don't deserve it. Another critical thing you'll see here is the almost total stagnation of innovation and advancement. When you take the profit motive out of the equation, why would anyone push the envelope in designing new procedures or researching new cures? They won't.
So, you'll end up with worse care that takes longer and is more expensive, and a nameless, faceless government deciding if you can get even that. Is that what you want?
These things are not speculation. We've seen them actually occur in other nations that have adopted universal health care. Ask anyone who's been involved in the health care system in England, Canada, or most other European countries, and they'll confirm that our system -- even with all its considerable problems -- is far, far better!
So what do you get when we hand over absolute control to a nameless, faceless government? You lose your soul. Case in point: England is moving forward with a plan to experiment with combining human and animal cells. Naturally, this involves embryonic creation and destruction, so the ethical problems involved here are enormous, not to mention the abhorrent idea of combining human and animal life at the genetic level. Here's another one: the British government is moving forward on a plan to remove organs without the consent of the deceased or their family . They are even going so far as to rate hospitals on the conversion rate of organs harvested, and identifying potential donors before they're even dead! I wonder how much of this new system is being prompted by the severe lack of organs and procedures due to their universal health care system?
Do you know what the wealthy in those countries do for their own health care? They go somewhere else. More recently, a whole new industry has sprouted where private hospitals administer top-quality health care to anyone who can walk through the door and pay for it. Hm, that sounds a lot like the American system of health care...
To illustrate the other side of things, a team of scientists at the University of Minnesota have created a functional rat heart from the cells of a dead rat heart. This is obviously a stunning achievement, and a major step toward growing new organs for human medical care.
Why is it that so many of these sorts of innovations come from the U.S.? Because our capitalistic society encourages and rewards those who break new ground and succeed with products and services that people want. This is the key principle here. Freedom to pursue innovation and receive the commensurate rewards is what has enabled America to become the most advanced nation in the history of the world in less than three hundred years while maintaining its moral compass at the same time. Putting power in the hands of the people is a natural check on unethical and amoral behavior through sheer numbers, but putting power in the hands of a few so-called elite is asking for corruption and immorality. Freedom is the crucial ingredient to our continued success in health care (and pretty much all other industries), and freedom is precisely what 'universal' government control takes away.
And, let's be honest. Anything and everything the government touches becomes bloated, inefficient, and overly expensive. In short, government intervention ruins almost everything. Social Security? Bankrupt. Welfare? Ridiculously large until the Republicans fixed it in the '90s. Department of Education? Everyone knows our schools have suffered. Do we want the government running our health care, too?
Let the private sector run free, and you'll see innovations -- driven by rewards -- like you can only imagine. Let the government step in, and you can't even guarantee an aspirin when you need one. Every one of the Democrat presidential candidates wants universal health care. Do you?
There's my two cents.
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