Socialized Medicine Does Not Work (lesson time from THE LIMBAUGH INSTITUTE)

Rush Limbaugh ^ | June 17, 2003 | Rush Limbaugh

[TLBSHOW]

Socialized Medicine Does Not Work

By Rush Limbaugh

My friends, look at Canada - just look at it. Do you think socialized medicine works there? It doesn't. The lines are long and the care is poor. They say it's "free," but they have a sales tax as high as 18% and their dollar buys a fraction of what ours does. In every nation with socialized medicine, health care is on par with your average Department of Motor Vehicles here in the United States.

It's a tribute to the quality of our system that even the biggest proponents of socialized medicine travel here to get lifesaving treatment. I had this discussion with Teresa in St. Louis on Tuesday, who asked us "to try to get a little bit of sympathy" for her health care problems. Sympathy is one thing, but it's not sympathetic to give people a socialized medicine program when we know it doesn't work and doesn't give good health care! Teresa told me about her mother-in-law's IV bag and about her being unable to wear long pants. Folks, Medicare will pay for your clothes and even for your cab rides to the doctor's office. And it's not "Medicare" that's paying for that; it's people who are working.

Pretty soon, young people will be forced to pay for housing and clothing for everyone - and we'll find the same failure as the USSR found when they tried this. Universal health care is not the same thing as quality and timely health care. Bureaucrats are not the most effective decision-makers when it comes to distributing any form of service. All socialism does is spread misery equally - and the wealthy in these nations just travel abroad or to private hospitals while the very poor the left claims to be saving suffers worse health care than ever. Remember: doctors leave these nations or practice less or don't go into the field at all! Like so many things, folks, socialized medicine sounds very good and compassionate but it's not. I hope you young people are listening, because you're going to be buying drugs for millionaires and all those greedy Baby Boomers if this stuff passes.

[TLBSHOW]

ping

[snopercod]

Nice rant until the last sentence. I am a baby-boomer, having been conceived right after my Dad got back from the South Pacific.

I work for a living, always have, and have always paid for my own health care. Well, OK, my wife is paying for it lately.

What Rush should have said is the "greedy AARP members, who think the young folks owe them free everything until they die."

[TLBSHOW]

fyi

[JohnGalt]

Bush got his war; socialist will get their socialized pharmaceuticals, and the welfare-warfare state rolls on.

[Alberta's Child]

I've got some news for Mr. Limbaugh: Any insurance-based system of medical care is doomed to fail, regardless of whether the coverage is provided by the government, an HMO, or a traditional insurance plan.

[TLBSHOW]

I've got some news for Mr. Limbaugh:

..

This would be one of many threads here at FR that you could it put it and he will see it. ( hmmm?)

[Constitution Day]

What Rush should have said is the "greedy AARP members, who think the young folks owe them free everything until they die."

The Geritol Mafia is what I call them.

[TheKost]

Countries that have socialized medicine cannot afford to spend any of their resources on curing disease. If the US were to go a Hillary Care system you can forget about seeing cures or new treatments for Diabetes, Cancer, AIDS, Heart Disease, Sickle Cell Anemia and Cystic Fibrosis. The left really doesn’t believe in supply and demand. Why are there lines to see Doctors in Canada, because there are not enough doctors because Canada can’t afford to pay its health professionals. They have probably all come to America. Next you will see drug price fixing like the rest of the world has done, this will also lead to a drop in the money the Pharmaceuticals spend on R&D and drive the small Pharmaceuticals, who really cure disease, out of business. We need to foster more competition in health care not less.

[eyespysomething]

The hope has to be that people my age (30's) will not sit idly by and just let this pass "to take the issue off the table" for the Dems.

Good giggly wiggly, stand up against it! Fight it! Contact your Senators, your Congressmen, write President Bush, contact the RNC! Make our voices heard!

More spending than Clinton! Biggest program in in in I don't know, what did Rush say? 40 years!? Doesn't matter. Bigger than anything the last 2 socialist Presidents (Carter and Clinton) did! That should be a slap in the face to all conservatives!

What the hell is going on here? Smaller government my a$$. I hope my generation doesn't have the mindset of "Well, they (babyboomers) got it, so I want it too." The entitlements HAVE to stop. Just because you lived to 65 in America doesn't give you the right to free healthcare or medicine. A hospital in Macon, GA is getting $21 MILLION dollars in federal money for indigent care. What the hell is that if not gov't funded healthcare already! That's a single hospital!

America has gone crazy. The GOP has gone crazy. I have reached my "comfort" level. I am ready for something, anything (except Dems).

[kesg]

He is absolutely right. Socialized medicine is nothing more than an attempt to cheat the law of supply and demand, which cannot be cheated in medicine or any other area.

[sr4402]

I've got some news for Mr. Limbaugh: Any insurance-based system of medical care is doomed to fail, regardless of whether the coverage is provided by the government, an HMO, or a traditional insurance plan.

Mind stating your rational? Just because you say it doesn't prove it.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Cate]

Gads, we are still suffering the effects of the Hitlery healthcare theory. So much paperwork, and so many hoops to jump through. Doctors do not want to do more paperwork, they want to see their patients. They want to be able to leave their offices for lunch. They would love to be able to sit down at 6 pm and have dinner with their families. The doctors would like to be able to pay their staff more and charge their patients less. BUT, UNTIL WE GET OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND THINKING THAT ALL OUR HEALTHCARE SHOULD BE FREE AND THAT INSURANCE SHOULD PAY FOR EVERY STUPID THING WE CAN THINK OF, the above mentioned scenario will never be a reality. I think each and everyone of us are guilty of griping because our insurance companies haven't paid enough for services rendered. That is not what they are for. They are to supplement your own out of pocket payment. The insurance is a benefit not a god given right. This is harsh, but its similar to car repairs. HMO's are choking the life out of free choice in our healthcare system. A $10 or $15 copay is nuts to see the doctor. How about 50-50? Medicine is a business and you are buying a service from the healthcare providers. And people who sue every healthcare provider they run into because they didnt' get a 100% outcome of treatment, also drive up the cost of medicine. The doctors are human and mistakes are made by each and everyone of us humans on a daily basis. How can one group of us be exempt from ever making a mistake? The obvious, deliberate mistakes should be sued for, but an honest to goodness mistake should not be sued for. Ok, I feel better after my tirade.

[Indrid Cold]

Hmm. Infoplease says Canada has both a lower infant mortality and a higher life expectancy than the US. So does the UK. So do France and Germany. All socialist. Must be a fluke, right?

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004393.html

[Sir Gawain]

I'd rather live a shorter life as a free person than a longer life as a slave.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Indrid Cold]

In fact, even that socialist cesspit known as Cuba recently reported a lower infant mortality rate than the US, with a similar (or higher, depends on where and from what year you get your stats) life expectancy rate.

[Sir Gawain]

I'm not sure the point you're trying to make.

[RWG]

Socialized medicine does not work.

Aparently neither does capitalist medicine; why do so many adult children pay or will pay for care and medication for their older relatives?

[Indrid Cold]

Actually, I'm just being a gadfly.

[gcruse]

Actually, if the commanding heights of the economy don't want to hire anybody over fifty, then they can at least keep us in drugs once the unemployment runs out.

[eyespysomething]

will you add me to the socialized medicine bump list. I have a new thorn in my side!

[Libertarianize the GOP]

You can either follow the link and scroll down the bump lists to "Socialized Medicine" or click on the Keyword below the article to find the indexed threads but it won't ping you. http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[RWG]

The solution is Legislation allowing people to set up Medical Savings Accounts.

Suppose you didn't have any extra money to put into this MSA.

[Alberta's Child]

Mind stating your rationale?

Sure. It's actually quite simple.

In a pure economic transaction, a buyer and a seller "negotiate" either directly or indirectly to determine the market price for a product or service. The buyer charges as much as he can, while the seller tries to buy for the lowest price possible. Maybe the seller has some spare inventory and is willing to sell that $10 item for $9.50, or maybe the buyer is shopping for it at 2:00 AM and is therefore willing to pay $12 for it instead of $10. Any number of factors come into play, but the end result of any purchase is that the buyer and the seller have "agreed" on a market price.

Any transaction involving medical insurance does not adhere to economic principles of supply, demand, pricing, etc. regardless of whether the "insurance" involves a government agency or a private insurance company. It is an "impure" transaction because it involves one seller (a doctor, medical group, or hospital) but two different buyers (the patient and the insurance company) with competing interests. One buyer (the patient) has no incentive to consider costs when "shopping" for medical services because he isn't paying the cost himself, while the other buyer (the insurance company or government) has no incentive to consider quality when paying for medical services because it doesn't have to live with the consequences of poor medical care.

Go to any state that is currently trying to deal with an auto insurance "crisis" these days, and think of cars as patients and auto body shops as doctors. The basic problems with auto insurance are identical to the problems that are faced with medical insurance.

The only type of insurance that is largely immune to the vagaries of these impure financial transactions is life insurance, since the person who is covered by a life insurance policy has to die to collect on it and therefore doesn't enjoy the "benefits" of a claim (the hypothetical case of someone who fakes his own death to collect on the insurance is the rare exception).

[Alberta's Child]

Good post. I should have read it before I posted #27.

When it comes time to file a claim, an insurance policy like medical coverage or an auto insurance policy is the equivalent of an "all-you-can-eat" buffet for the person who is filing the claim. And the insurance company is the equivalent of a restaurant serving this buffet without being subject to periodic health inspections.

[TLBSHOW]

bttt

[Constitution Day]

Blast from the past BUMP!