When Theodore Roosevelt was president he tried to inaugurate universal health care in 1902, long before the NHS. The AMA was founded for the express purpose of opposing it. So this issue has been around well over a century. It is a political and not an economic issue, since health care costs are going to be syndicated one way or the other - rationally or irrationally.
What I am not clear on is whether socialized medicine works and how well. When I was in England they told us there is a thriving private health care industry because the rich would not consider going to the NHS facilities set up for the poor. Apparently before Margaret Thatcher took over they were on about the level one would expect from reading a Dickens novel, but they have improved immeasurably since then. Even post-Thatcher no one will use them who can afford an alternative. I have also read in the British press about people routinely dying (again post-Thatcher) after waiting years for needed surgeries and treatments. The Soviet Union had a socialized health care system before it collapsed, but it was very much two tier, with the elite getting world class care and the poor having to do with essentially third world standards. In Canada, according to the Canadian press, health care in some areas is allocated by lottery, with the winners getting "free" health care and the losers being left essentially to die or treat themselves. The elite in Canada of course get special treatment everywhere at government expense that the ordinary folk cannot even dream about. I know a woman who is Italian and who broke her arm while in Italy. She went to the socialized doc and was told she would have to wait three months (!) to have her arm set or else pay a bribe of $10,000. Nobody wants to sit around for three months with a broken arm, so she paid the bribe and they screwed the job up horribly, leaving the arm useless and a constant source of pain. On returning to Texas she could have had it fixed, but by then the bones had knitted, so the docs would have had to break the arm a second time and re-set it, which would have required about a month of recuperation in bed. Any Boy Scout knows how to set a broken arm, so the fact that socialized medicine in Italy is that bad astonishes this observer. I believe the story is true, though, because her arm is in a cast and has been for quite some time. She has nothing good to say about socialized medicine and will not hear anyone who praises it.
There is in fact socialized medicine in the US, with county hospitals for the poor and Veterans Administration hospitals for veterans. It is a sorry story, but nobody wants to go to these places unless they have no choice. One concern that some have is that the whole health care system will start to resemble those parts that are currently socialized, with no one getting good care but the rich. I believe there is already general socialized health care in some states, such as Massachusetts and Oregon. When I had my cataracts removed I was told that people fly in from all over the world to have the work done in Texas because the care in other places is so bad. The clinic is set up to have a driver meet patients at the airport and ferry them to local hotels, then pick them up and take them in for surgery, returning them to the hotel when the job is done.
So those are the stories I have heard. I have no insurance and will be ruined if I ever get much more than a cold, but it is not clear whether I or others like me would benefit from the socialization of health care. Bear in mind I am trying to sift and weigh evidence here and not make a politically charged statement.
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When Theodore Roosevelt was president he tried to inaugurate universal health care in 1902, long before the NHS. The AMA was founded for the express purpose of opposing it. So this issue has been around well over a century. It is a political and not an economic issue, since health care costs are going to be syndicated one way or the other - rationally or irrationally.
What I am not clear on is whether socialized medicine works and how well. When I was in England they told us there is a thriving private health care industry because the rich would not consider going to the NHS facilities set up for the poor. Apparently before Margaret Thatcher took over they were on about the level one would expect from reading a Dickens novel, but they have improved immeasurably since then. Even post-Thatcher no one will use them who can afford an alternative. I have also read in the British press about people routinely dying (again post-Thatcher) after waiting years for needed surgeries and treatments. The Soviet Union had a socialized health care system before it collapsed, but it was very much two tier, with the elite getting world class care and the poor having to do with essentially third world standards. In Canada, according to the Canadian press, health care in some areas is allocated by lottery, with the winners getting "free" health care and the losers being left essentially to die or treat themselves. The elite in Canada of course get special treatment everywhere at government expense that the ordinary folk cannot even dream about. I know a woman who is Italian and who broke her arm while in Italy. She went to the socialized doc and was told she would have to wait three months (!) to have her arm set or else pay a bribe of $10,000. Nobody wants to sit around for three months with a broken arm, so she paid the bribe and they screwed the job up horribly, leaving the arm useless and a constant source of pain. On returning to Texas she could have had it fixed, but by then the bones had knitted, so the docs would have had to break the arm a second time and re-set it, which would have required about a month of recuperation in bed. Any Boy Scout knows how to set a broken arm, so the fact that socialized medicine in Italy is that bad astonishes this observer. I believe the story is true, though, because her arm is in a cast and has been for quite some time. She has nothing good to say about socialized medicine and will not hear anyone who praises it.
There is in fact socialized medicine in the US, with county hospitals for the poor and Veterans Administration hospitals for veterans. It is a sorry story, but nobody wants to go to these places unless they have no choice. One concern that some have is that the whole health care system will start to resemble those parts that are currently socialized, with no one getting good care but the rich. I believe there is already general socialized health care in some states, such as Massachusetts and Oregon. When I had my cataracts removed I was told that people fly in from all over the world to have the work done in Texas because the care in other places is so bad. The clinic is set up to have a driver meet patients at the airport and ferry them to local hotels, then pick them up and take them in for surgery, returning them to the hotel when the job is done.
So those are the stories I have heard. I have no insurance and will be ruined if I ever get much more than a cold, but it is not clear whether I or others like me would benefit from the socialization of health care. Bear in mind I am trying to sift and weigh evidence here and not make a politically charged statement.
July 25, 2009 - 9:36amThis Comment
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