[liberallarry]

I'm a member of a citizens Board trying to save a small rural hospital.

Don't kid yourselves. The crisis is real. Modern medicine is much more costly than what was practiced in the '50s; expensive machines and the specialists needed to use and maintain them, high expectations that result in lawsuits, doctors who want to live well, hospitals which must meet more stringent building codes, patients who demand the best regardless of what they can afford, immigrants who use emergency rooms as if they were free medical services.

Now it's all breaking down and nobody knows how to fix it. Ultimately, if we are to avoid socialized medicine, people are going to have to accept more responsibility for taking care of themselves (preventative medicine) and realize that medicine is a scarce resource - with the best going to the brightest, the luckiest, and the wealthiest.

That's going to be a really hard sell.

[cgbg]

realize that medicine is a scarce resource - with the best going to the brightest, the luckiest, and the wealthiest

Yup, it is called the market--and it is the only health care system that works. Actually socialized medicine has a market as well--the black market!

The government has turned this industry into a cookie monster that eats up GNP because the people who get the services aren't paying for them.

Given the sheeple's view that "health care is a right" we are heading almost inevitably to fully socialized medicine.

At that point there will be a two-tiered system--a black market (perhaps off-shore) for the rich, and a queue for everyone else. "Free" medical care increases the demand for medical care which in turn will cause longer queues.

Another byproduct of socialized medicine is that the next generation will view the medical profession with disdain and the best and the brightest will stay away. A generation later and you are waiting days, weeks, and months for lousy medical care, the worst of both worlds.

There is a solution--it is called pay as you go and if you cannot afford then do without. That is the only way that scarce medical resources can be allocated properly. It is not fair, the liberals will whine. And the only answer is--life is not fair, but all attempts to hide that fact will only lead to a disaster many times worse.

[bert]

>>>Now it's all breaking down and nobody knows how to fix it<<

Nobody that is except Steve Forbes. Check out forbes.com in the subject...... Steve knows and his ideas work in practice.

[sphinx]

realize that medicine is a scarce resource - with the best going to the brightest, the luckiest, and the wealthiest.

As opposed to going to the politically connected, which is the Democrat goal.