I want you to think back to the last time you were at the DMV. Remember how long you had to wait and who many different windows you were sent to. It wasn't very fun was it? Now imagine that you were just in a car accident and needed immediate medical attention. If you lived in Canada you’d have to wait on average 8 hours before you'd finally be seen by a doctor. By that time, you've already endured massive internal bleeding but unfortunately there is nothing they can do because you were seen too late. Fortunately, you live in the United States of America and have access to the most efficient and state of the art healthcare in the entire world. You might not have health insurance, but that's okay because you'll still be seen right away. You might come out a few thousand dollars in debt but that's okay because you're still alive! You would have died if you lived in Canada. You would have died if the government ran healthcare the way it runs the DMV.
It has been widely reported that 40 million people in the US do not have health insurance but that number is actually inflated and roughly 70% of this group are individuals between the ages of 18 and 30 who either feel that they do not need insurance or are currently in the process of obtaining it. Thousands of people die at the hands of socialized medicine every year. The Tony award winning actress Natasha Richardson was in a skiing accident in March at a ski Resort in Canada and Natasha could have received a CAT scan after her accident but was deprived of the opportunity. Camille Larson, a 22 year old student from London found out that she had advanced bone cancer in 2006 and was put on a waiting list in order to receive chemotherapy treatments. Camille passed away in 2007 but probably would have survived if she had lived in the US since there is no waiting list for cancer patients here. It has become common in Canada and European countries for doctors to limit the medical care each individual patient receives because there are so many people on the list and so few doctors. Australia has only 2.6 hospital beds per every 1000 people. England and Australia are both on the verge of bankruptcy because of their socialized systems and it has become extremely difficult for them to keep their doctors from moving to the US where they are paid more for their hard work.
Medicine here is still largely run by the private sector and as a result we have one of the most efficient systems in the world. Capitalism might be the brunt of everyone's hatred these days but without it, there would be no efficiency in the medical industry because there would be no incentive for reward. Yes, the healthcare industry is out to make a profit, but that profit is the reason we have state of the art medical care. Imagine if the DMV was run by a private company. It would be in their best interest to get you in and out as soon as possible because you could always take your business to another company and they would lose a customer. Competition and incentive for reward is what makes business and the world more competent.
Now I'm not saying that our system is perfect, but it is far superior to the alternative. We have the option to choose between a PPO and an HMO and there are more alternatives out there. Those options empower us as consumers. We need to let the private sector have even more control over healthcare to make it even more accessible (See youtube clip below). But you're probably thinking, "I have health insurance so if they socialize medicine in this country, I' won't be affected"........WRONG!!! If the government starts running healthcare then we will all go down together. Private care will go out of business because why would anyone pay for health insurance if they could get it free from the government? We will lose our options and we will all be stuck with the same horrible socialized healthcare. So my friends, enjoy the system that we have now because someday you'll look back on this time and wish that you were back in the good old days.
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I don't have insurance but I pray that medicine does not become socialized after reading this. Your argument is very persuasive.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say...God bless your cotton socks! My husband and I have been trying to persuade many of our friends that big government is a bad idea, and that our civil liberties are being taken away, little by little...our government is bordering on socialism and far too many of us are either blissfully ignorant or are in blatant denial. Thank you for creating some sense of sanity by using this blog to educate others. Good luck and God bless!
ReplyDelete1984 has officially begun as far as I'm concerned. This is everything the liberal media doesn't want us to know and I'm just glad that I wasn't brainwashed into following the mindless crowd that voted for Obama........
ReplyDeleteExcellent way to get the argument across to people who aren't fond of economics. I think it's also important to recognize that a crisis *does* exist, in our system, however--but that exists precisely in and because of those parts of our system that are *already* heavily regulated. (1), the FDA keeping life-saving medicines out of our country and causing hundreds of thousands of deaths per year because their reputation is only harmed by the few people who die by a bad medicine they approve, while no one connects the hundreds of thousands dying of *LACK* of medicine to the FDA; (2), the regulations that created the HMOs, which were created back when people were yelling "Crisis!" at the fact that people were purchasing a year's worth of insurance for a single dollar, by pooling resources in their mutual aid societies; (3), the licensing laws that require even people who only want to do simple jobs (say, filling in cavities as a dentist) to take an entire eight years of training in all medical fields (when training for dentistry itself only requires about eight months), thereby artificially limiting supply and bumping prices for *all* medical work, simple or not (since doctors with high opportunity costs have to take time off to do the simple work of dentistry, and thereby demand far more for their dentistry work than would people who had only required eight months of training).
ReplyDeleteGot here via the link you posted to the Myspace Libertarians group, by the way :D
ReplyDeletemy blogs are thelibertarianoption.blogspot.com (on legalization of marijuana from both a pragmatic and ethical perspective), and freedomsring.wordpress.com (on the effects of the stimulus and why it's a horrible idea, so far).
Anything the government runs is always crappy.
ReplyDeleteHey Burberry girl. When you told me you were gonna start a conservative blog I didn't think you were actually serious. You crazy Libertarians ;)
ReplyDeleteOMG I love Anderson Cooper!! That is so cool that you know him. Great blog too by the way.
ReplyDeleteAs Reagan put it "Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves."
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming from Anderson Cooper's comment above that he is not a conservative. Why am I not surprised, lol.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great article. I am pretty familiar with the whole socialized medicine fiasco, but I was unaware of the problem Natasha Richardson encountered. Truly sad, as was the bone cancer case from Britain. It is so refreshing to see more and more people who are standing up to take our country back. We live in the greatest country in the history of the world, and articles like this prove it! For more information on related topics please visit www.politicalspinonline.typepad.com
ReplyDeleteCarmen, it's Lori from clinic. BLESS YOU!!!! Show me one program the government runs effectively and I'll give you medicine. STATES RIGHT. Federal GOverment needs to stick to military and foreign affairs....that is it.
ReplyDelete