Difference between revisions of "Socialized medicine"

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'''Socialized medicine''' is a [[universal health care]] system provided by the government either through national insurance, as in France, or directly through a state National Health Service (with private competition), as in the UK. These two models of universal health care are dominant and very few countries have a complete state monopoly of health care.  
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[[File:Dem Health Care Chart.JPG|thumb|315px|right|Diagram of [[Democrat]]ic proposals for so-called "reform."]]
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'''Socialized Medicine''' is [[health care]] as supplied by a [[monopolistic]] or heavily [[subsidized]] and regulated [[universal health care]] State system.
  
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[[Pierre Lemieux]] wrote:
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==2009==
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:Health care has to be rationed either by the market or by political and bureaucratic processes. The latter are no more just than the former. We often forget that people who have difficulty making money in the market are not necessarily better at jumping queues in a socialized system.[http://www.theadvocates.org/freeman/8903lemi.html]
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Health care funding was the major political issue of 2009, with the Republicans in near-solid opposition and the Democrats divided. On November 7, 2009, the House passed its version, the "Affordable Health Care for America Act" (H.R. 3962). It would cost $1.1 trillion but now goes to the Senate where its fate is uncertain.  
  
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==Advantages==
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It just barely passed 215-210, as 39 Democrats deserted Speaker [[Nancy Pelosi]]'s leadership; only one Republican voted yes.  Pelosi, a liberal, is a strong supporter of abortion but to get the 215 votes she had to give in to Catholic leaders nationally and abortion opponents in her own caucus and allow passage of the [[Stupak Amendment]]. The amendment imposes tight restrictions that bar any insurance plan that is purchased with government subsidies from covering abortions.  As a result, numerous liberals denounced the bill even as they voted for it.<ref>David M. Herszenhorn and Jackie Calmes, [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/health/policy/08scene.html?_r=1 "Abortion Was at Heart of Wrangling," ''New York Times'' Nov 7, 2009]</ref>
  
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Because state run health systems do not need to run at a profit, have higher credit worthiness than private companies, are not driven by commercial aims, and have more funds available to them than private hospitals, they are generally able to provide more health services at a lower cost than the market would. Universal health care systems are also able to provide equal health treatment for those who would typically be unable to afford it, or would not be offered private health coverage due to a chronic illness.
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==Conservative counter-arguments ==
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===Loss of incentives to create new drugs/treatments===
  
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Universal health care also dodges the "information imbalance" which makes private health insurance artificially expensive for the consumers: because any private individual knows better than the insurer about his or her state of personal health (and have an incentive to hide or deny any health problems they have), insurers have to treat everyone as being unhealthy and thus charge a higher premium. This higher premium drives away consumers who are fairly healthy and think they can do without coverage, which further exacerbates the problem (as only unhealthy people get coverage the insurer sees average payout costs per customer rising and has to start denying claims or raising premiums again).
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The White House Council of Economic Advisers issued a report in June 2009 explaining the [[Obama administration]]'s goal of reducing projected health spending by 30% over the next two decades. That reduction would be achieved by eliminating "high cost, low-value treatments," by "implementing a set of performance measures that all providers would adopt," and by "directly targeting individual providers . . . (and other) high-end outliers."
  
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==Disadvantages==
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Obama emphasized the importance of limiting services to "health care that works." To identify such care, he provided more than $1 billion in the [[American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009]] to jump-start Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) and to finance a federal CER advisory council. Comparative effectiveness would become the vehicle for deciding whether each method of treatment provides enough of an improvement in health care to justify the cost. The existence of such a program in the U.S. similar the British NHS's Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) would not only deny lifesaving care but would also cast a pall over medical researchers who would fear that government experts might reject their discoveries as "too expensive."<ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204683204574358233780260914.html?mod=djemEditorialPage</ref>
  
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National health care systems are hugely expensive to the government (though are typically cheaper per capita than private systems). Furthermore the quality of care can be lower than private systems due to the excess demand and strain it faces. Some people are also concerned that it leads to excessive individual dependence on the government (though arguably this is better than not getting any coverage at all and dying young).
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===New Tax===
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If an individual fails to purchase coverage and does not meet the exceptions or the religious exemption, then a financial penalty will be assessed. Under this particular proposal for [[Obamacare]] care, the penalty is calculated by multiplying the number of uncovered months times the weighted average of the monthly premium for a plan in the person’s coverage class and coverage area, plus 15 percent.<ref>http://wyden.senate.gov/issues/Healthy%20Americans%20Act/HAA_Section_by_Section.pdf</ref>
  
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===Reagan===
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In 1961 (while still a Democrat), [[Ronald Reagan]] took part in [[Operation Coffee Cup]] and in part here is what he said: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdLpem-AAs&feature=player_embedded]:
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{{Cquote|One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. . . . Now, the American people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it. We have an example of this. Under the Truman administration it was proposed that we have a compulsory health insurance program for all people in the United States, and, of course, the American people unhesitatingly rejected this.
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The doctor begins to lose freedom. . . . First you decide that the doctor can have so many patients. They are equally divided among the various doctors by the government. But then doctors aren’t equally divided geographically. So a doctor decides he wants to practice in one town and the government has to say to him, you can't live in that town. They already have enough doctors. You have to go someplace else. And from here it's only a short step to dictating where he will go. . . . All of us can see what happens once you establish the precedent that the government can determine a man's working place and his working methods, determine his employment. From here it's a short step to all the rest of socialism, to determining his pay. And pretty soon your son won't decide, when he's in school, where he will go or what he will do for a living. He will wait for the government to tell him where he will go to work and what he will do. }}
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== See also ==
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* [[Obamacare]]
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* [[Health care in Nazi Germany]]
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==References==
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{{reflist}}
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{{communism}}
 
[[Category:Medicine]]
 
[[Category:Medicine]]
 
[[Category:Socialism]]
 
[[Category:Socialism]]
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[[Category:Health Care]]
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[[Category:Government Programs]]
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[[Category:Welfare State]]
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[[Category:Police State]]
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[[Category:Government incompetence]]

Latest revision as of 22:36, January 6, 2025

Diagram of Democratic proposals for so-called "reform."

Socialized Medicine is health care as supplied by a monopolistic or heavily subsidized and regulated universal health care State system.

2009

Health care funding was the major political issue of 2009, with the Republicans in near-solid opposition and the Democrats divided. On November 7, 2009, the House passed its version, the "Affordable Health Care for America Act" (H.R. 3962). It would cost $1.1 trillion but now goes to the Senate where its fate is uncertain.

It just barely passed 215-210, as 39 Democrats deserted Speaker Nancy Pelosi's leadership; only one Republican voted yes. Pelosi, a liberal, is a strong supporter of abortion but to get the 215 votes she had to give in to Catholic leaders nationally and abortion opponents in her own caucus and allow passage of the Stupak Amendment. The amendment imposes tight restrictions that bar any insurance plan that is purchased with government subsidies from covering abortions. As a result, numerous liberals denounced the bill even as they voted for it.[1]

Conservative counter-arguments

Loss of incentives to create new drugs/treatments

The White House Council of Economic Advisers issued a report in June 2009 explaining the Obama administration's goal of reducing projected health spending by 30% over the next two decades. That reduction would be achieved by eliminating "high cost, low-value treatments," by "implementing a set of performance measures that all providers would adopt," and by "directly targeting individual providers . . . (and other) high-end outliers."

Obama emphasized the importance of limiting services to "health care that works." To identify such care, he provided more than $1 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to jump-start Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) and to finance a federal CER advisory council. Comparative effectiveness would become the vehicle for deciding whether each method of treatment provides enough of an improvement in health care to justify the cost. The existence of such a program in the U.S. similar the British NHS's Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) would not only deny lifesaving care but would also cast a pall over medical researchers who would fear that government experts might reject their discoveries as "too expensive."[2]

New Tax

If an individual fails to purchase coverage and does not meet the exceptions or the religious exemption, then a financial penalty will be assessed. Under this particular proposal for Obamacare care, the penalty is calculated by multiplying the number of uncovered months times the weighted average of the monthly premium for a plan in the person’s coverage class and coverage area, plus 15 percent.[3]

Reagan

In 1961 (while still a Democrat), Ronald Reagan took part in Operation Coffee Cup and in part here is what he said: [1]:

“ One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. . . . Now, the American people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it. We have an example of this. Under the Truman administration it was proposed that we have a compulsory health insurance program for all people in the United States, and, of course, the American people unhesitatingly rejected this.

The doctor begins to lose freedom. . . . First you decide that the doctor can have so many patients. They are equally divided among the various doctors by the government. But then doctors aren’t equally divided geographically. So a doctor decides he wants to practice in one town and the government has to say to him, you can't live in that town. They already have enough doctors. You have to go someplace else. And from here it's only a short step to dictating where he will go. . . . All of us can see what happens once you establish the precedent that the government can determine a man's working place and his working methods, determine his employment. From here it's a short step to all the rest of socialism, to determining his pay. And pretty soon your son won't decide, when he's in school, where he will go or what he will do for a living. He will wait for the government to tell him where he will go to work and what he will do.

”

See also

References