Posted on 03/07/2009 5:55:54 PM PST by Libloather
My favorite - Michigan Shouldn't Copy Canada's Health System
For later arguments
The American people won’t be able to claim they were not warned.
Actually, I think Australia’s Medicare system works well - about the only socialist idea I’ve ever seen that does. I think it works because Australians also have the choice of private care alongside if they want it and are willing to pay (or have insurance).
Thank you, LL
It’s so horrible we’ve just got to try it. The only reason I can see for socalized medicine is if you want to kill off elderly pensioners so you have to pay out less in social security.
I'd be curious to hear from FReepers down under or others who have familiarity.
Major PING. Great post.
Thank you so much for posting this...scary but necessary information.
I really do not understand the health care crisis in American, I have had health insurance and currently do not, yet I have never been denied any care at any clinic or hospital.
get it through your thick head that the failures of socialized healthcare around the world doesn’t matter because the right people haven’t implemented it! Now we have the right people with BaCock and that racist wife of his Michelle!
Just give them a chance to prove 150 years of failed socialism was just a fluke!
:P
Bookmarked! Thank you.
The problem is that Americans wouldn't stand for the long waits for things like knee and hip surgery, that Aussies who do not have the private insurance have to endure.
What the left in America wants is fast service and free pharmaceuticals, but I don't see how they can pay for it. For a starter, they would have to get rid of trial lawyers, (which don't exist to the extent in the countries that have government medical systems) and they are a big supporter of the Democrats. So if they go to a truly universal health system that doesn't ration health care (and all of the government countries do that), they will never be able to afford it without significantly raising taxes to a rate that is unsustainable.
It isn't a health "care" crisis, it's a health insurance issue. All the illegals, young people who don't want insurance, and the self-employed who can't afford it or don't want it. There is no crisis. Everyone, and I mean everyone, get care at any hospital.
The problem with that is, the emergency rooms are full to running over due to all the illegals who use them for doctor visits and minor emergencies so they don't have to pay a doctor at their office.
As I said earlier in the thread - Australia’s Medicare system does seem to work. The only socialist idea I’ve seen that does (OK - to be fair, the university payment system works too, but that’s a compromise between the socialist system that didn’t work that was reached with the conservatives, not a purely socialist system).
If you need to see a doctor because you’re problem is urgent, you’ll be treated quickly and you won’t have to pay. If you have a problem that can wait, you’ll have to wait unless you are willing to pay. A lot of Australians use both the public and private systems depending on what they are dealing with.
The cold, hard, reality is that each of us is entitled to the health care we can purchase, either directly or indirectly through an insurance package we can purchase. Anything beyond our ability to pay is charity.
Sadly, as medication takes longer to develop and as instrumentation becomes more complicated to build and maintain, cost becomes prohibitive. At some point, one must choose between having the family housed, clothed, and fed and one person taking all the resources for medical care. Each decision must be made on an individual case-by-case basis by the people affected and paying the bills. Only then are we truly free.
Conservatives are going to loose, and socialized medicine will become the norm in America, UNLESS conservatives get their act together and start selling market-based healthcare, something we don’t have and haven’t had for a long, long, long time.
It’s time to channel your inner libertarian and start railing against the subsidies from Medicare and Medicaid that squeeze heavy prices onto private, non-subsidized consumers. It’s time to take on the AMA and occupational licensing. Yes, I’m calling for an end to licensing doctors and replacing the licensing scheme with voluntary certification. Why? Look up Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, and his work on occupational licensing. He called for the same thing, and this was before costs sky-rocketed.
To put it bluntly, the left has completely captured this debate. They own in. They’ve managed to frame the debate in terms of government handouts for free versus super-expensive private insurance. Anybody with a brain can see that the high cost of healthcare in this country has zilch to do with insurance companies (whose premiums merely reflect provider costs) and EVERYTHING to do with providers. Unfortunately, doctors have so much respect and political clout that nobody outside of the economics profession talks of taking them on.
Why does it cost an arm and a leg to have a cast put on or get some antibiotics for a cold? Licensing laws require doctors to be present, even if only for five minutes or to do something like give a shot, while nurses and the like do the bulk of the work. Modifying licensing laws won’t help, as these laws are invariably written by those in the occupations (doctors write the licensing laws, electricians write the licensing laws for electricians, etc., it’s called regulatory capture—again, look it up). We need to throw away the licensing requirements and replace them with voluntary certification programs.
Nurses can open up dirt-cheap clinics for minor ailments, without needing to pay for valuable doctors’ time. People could open up clinics that specialize only in stitching up cuts, or putting on casts, etc., all for much less than a fully-staffed doctor-led clinic could. It could work, but only if the law allows it.
The current licensing laws are like requiring you to see somebody with a PhD in engineering to have the hard drive replaced on your PC. It’s ludicrous.
Whoops, loose = lose, heh heh.
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