The High Price of ‘Free’ Health Care
Albert Einstein, the man who long ago described government health care
I believe this is the John Stossel report on government health care that was pre-empted a few weeks ago for critical coverage of Michael Jackson’s death.
Socialists always point to other countries (where most Americans have never been) to get us to believe that socialized health care can actually work (even though there are multiple examples going back decades that socialism failsins every time it’s tried).
So Stossel took a close look at “free” health care.
We see what happens when you give away something. Whether it’s free ice cream, free gas or something else, people line up to insane lengths just to get some…and health care is no exception. What ends up happening is that those who really need the service have to wait in line, often behind those who don’t really need it, but hey, it’s free!
I have seen this phenomenon played out with government health care both in the military health care system and the British National Health Service.
Speaking of which, Stossel points out that the NHS made headlines several months ago because of their ground-breaking initiative to bring the length of average wait times for health care down to 18 weeks. (I think they’re still working on achieving that target).
British hospitals are even resorting to just turning hospital bed sheets over instead of changing them. Hey, it’s “free,” right? Why complain? You should be good to go, as long as you’re reasonably sure the person in that bed before you didn’t have cooties…or some other communicable disease.
We also saw headlines several months ago that dental waiting lists have become so bad in Britain that people are pulling their own teeth. If you like the proposed Obamacare, do you have a good set of pliers handy?
Stossel also re-examines the headlines we’ve seen in the last year of women from Canada coming to the US to get their newborn children born with problems or risks into neonatal units.
Canadian doctor David Gratzer thought government health care was wonderful…until he actually started practicing medicine under it. Now he’s written a book called “The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care.”
He said the more time he worked in the Canadian system, the more he saw patients waiting long periods for health care they really need.
Stossel also shoots down the myth that Canadians live longer, pointing out that if you take out factors like obesity, murder and traffic accidents (things unrelated to the health care system), Americans live longer than Canadians.
We see that in the Canadian system, there are no family doctors available, no pediatricians, and even a man who had a heart attack must wait in line for a slot to open up so he can get into an ICU.
Stossel shows us one town in Canada where the town clerk runs a lottery, once a week pulling a family’s name out of a box and awarding them with a family doctor.
The insanity of the Canadian health care system is causing them to resort to…hold on…capitalism. They are going back to a private health care option, though officially private clinics are still illegal.
About the only health care you can obtain in Canada in a reasonable amount of time is veterinary care for your pet. Maybe Canadians will start wearing dog or cow costumes in order to get health care in a reasonable amount of time.
So why are our leaders so insane that they want to rush headlong into the dire mistake made by Canadians, British and other countries that are courting socialism?
I believe it was Albert Einstein who said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
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