Posted on 02/26/2008 6:50:35 PM PST by jazusamo
People on the left often use other countries as examples of things that we should do. If other countries have a government-run medical system, then we should have one too, they say. If other countries control prices, then we should control prices — or so the reasoning goes.
Almost never is there any suggestion that we should first find out whether the actual results of the policies we are supposed to imitate are better or worse than what we already have.
There is in fact a lot that we can learn from other countries if we look at the actual consequences of some of the things we are being urged to do, instead of just assuming that we should automatically imitate what others are doing.
Studies have already shown that the waiting time before being able to get surgery is several times as long in a number of countries with government-run medical systems as in the United States. Modern medical technology like MRIs and CAT scans are also rarer in such countries.
Venezuela is currently giving us a lesson on the consequences of price controls. The government of leftist President Hugo Chavez has imposed price controls — and seems to be surprised that lower prices have lead to reduced supplies, even though price controls have led to reduced supplies in countries around the world and for thousands of years...
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
PING
According to leftist logic, because other countries are impoverished, so should we. Perhaps that's why the left's solution to practically everything involves raising taxes and creating new regulations.
” People on the left often use other countries as examples of things that we should do.”
If Fidel isn’t dead already he would be if he hadn’t flown in doctors, no doubt in my mind.
bump
Mr. Sowell suggests that the costs of medical care cannot be reduce through law. I do think that assumes that there’s on monopolistic collusion taking place amongst insurance companies. Also, tort reform might have a significant cost-reduction effect on medical care.
No doubt in my mind. My brother-in-law is a retired surgeon. He retired about ten years earlier than he wanted to because of malpractice insurance and he never had any claims against him.
Than was about twenty years ago, I can't imagine what it's like now but that's a big factor in what we pay for medical care.
Some MD’s pay $300,000 to $500,000 per year with no claims ?
Just the fear of a John Edward’s type lawyer filing a frivolous lawsuit...
Tort reform would be one of the biggest single helps to control health care costs ?
Medicine is a govt protected near-monoply. It has amazing powers for a private sector enterprise. The govt helps it attack threats to its income stream and does nothing to curb it’s profit-before-health trade union, the AMA. The FDA is basically a running dog agency and it’s first mandate is to protect the profitability of the medical industry. It has a revolving door just like the DOD and is rife with corruption.
Like any monopoly medical costs will rise until they consume everything possible. Nationalize it and costs will skyrocket and service will plummet because there will be no recourse from incompetent and sadistic doctors at all.
As PJ O’Rourke said, “If you think health care is expensive now just wail until it’s free.”
Diocletian bump
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Agreed! We must do everything we can to stop the Rats from nationalizing medicine. Dr. Sowell is right on, Canada and the UK are excellent examples of why not to do it.
Ah but I remember the case of one of the tort reform pioneers in the Midwest. He helped put a hard cap on what might be awarded by jury and when he suffered (eventually died early from it) terribly at the hands of incompetence, he didn’t even get enough to cover all his costs and compensate him for the horrific reduction in the quality of his life (and length.)
It’s easy to buy into the claim that it’s lawsuits that have jacked up our medical costs, when really it’s mostly the distortions of government-mandated regulations and intervention in that sector. Along with things like insurance being ‘expected’ and tied into employment.
Thanks for the link, old Hugo is a real nut case.
The actual costs should be covered even into an unknown future. The MD, the hospital, the Insurance Companies, etc. should not be capped on actual.
It is the punitive money awards that sometimes seem excessive.
The professional cover-up by Medical Boards of bad MD’s is another big problem. Having a repeated offender loose is terrible.
We always talk to the RN’s, Dentists, EMT’s, OR tech’s...before medical staff decisions are made. The medical community knows who is good, bad, terrible...and why ( drugs, etc. )
Lefties believe an impoverished America is easier to bring under totalitarian control.
When politicians today say that they are going to "bring down the cost of medical care" or make housing "affordable," what are they talking about other than price controls?
. . . What is remarkable is how little interest there is among the media and among the public in how often and how consistently this has happened in the wake of price controls.
IMHO economics is a lot simpler if you think of ownership - of dollars or anything else - as "credit for doing something." Maybe you got that credit from your father for being born, or maybe you got it as a storeowner for giving someone a widget he wanted, or maybe you gave the storeowner a widget you made, or maybe you helped a businessman make the widget . . .If the government "controls a price," what it actually does is to arbitrarily limit your ability to give the supplier credit for the item or service he supplies. And that means that your judgement as to the value of supply, of the quality you want and when you want it, is censored.
Naturally, nobody will satisfy your desire for an item, on you schedule and of your desired quality, if you cannot tell them what your desire is.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.