Swiss Model Health-Care in America
Just the other day my nephew, a brilliant 22 years old with the wisdom of a much older and experienced individual - by the way, he's also an independent thinker - brought to my attention a recent article that appeared in the NY Times. Here is the link to it just in case you'd like to read it http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/health/policy/01swiss.html
I had to read it twice to grasp its full meaning. By now we all pretty much know that more than 51% of Americans are against a government run health-care which makes many of our politicians very nervous since they've been committing to the special-interests lobbyists to pass this bill no matter at what cost. That means that, if after all avenues have been exhausted and the Americans still don't want it, they will still pass this bill AGAINST the wishes and needs of the American people.
To get a little more help from their buddies (the obedient media) they are now using one of their "avenues of indoctrination" called NY Times. Mr. Nelson Schwartz is presenting the idea that if the government-run health-care is presented as a successful system in another country we will then, right away, buy into it and will stop giving the president and the endorsers of this bill such a hard time. So, he is using the model of Switzerland and wants to convince us that if it works for the Swiss it's going to work for the Americans. I do not claim to know exactly how the Swiss model works but my cousin, who lives in Switzerland, shared with me valuable information.
Let's first start with the reasons for which we oppose this bill. I happen to be experienced with government-run health-care since I lived in a communist country. Government-run health-care will lead to...
1. Rationing of health care due, in part, to a shortage of doctors.
2. Increase in fraud (the larger the bureaucracy the higher the fraud, and we for sure don't have a shortage of that).
3. Huge increase in the deficit as a result of non-accountability (our govt. has never been able to be profitable in ANY arena).
4. Decrease in the quality of health care. You see, when doctors become govt. employees with a salary cap and also become restricted by the Health care Czar on the treatment of their patients, there will be no incentives for older doctors to stay in the field of medicine and no incentives for young people who sacrifice their young lives and get themselves into student loan debt. Therefore, the govt. will have to lower their medical school standards (both, acceptance in the school and the curriculum) just to get average ordinary folks into the field of medicine. At that point we will have mediocre doctors graduating from medical schools with less desires to be the best they can be.
5. There are also many reasons for some of us to believe that it may cause an environment promoting some sort of a black market. If you had to wait a few months for a procedure to be done and you had the money, wouldn't you go to the doc and say "Hey Doc, here is.....(bribe), I need to get this done next week". I believe this might happen, after all it did happen where I come from.
6. Another step forward towards the complete take-over of the American industry by the govt.
OK, what the NY Times says is that Switzerland does have a government run system that is issued THROUGH private insurance companies. They also emphasize how great this system works and they are subliminally implying that the bill introduced by the government is kind of what the govt. has in mind to do here.
Now, I tell you how this, first of all, is another attempt to persuade the American people to buy into this. Here are the questions that I would ask the editor from NY Times if he gave me the chance to a debate. So, Mr. Schwartz , please...
1. Show me official statistics of the annual percentage of malpractice lawsuits in USA vs. Switzerland. (I wonder if the Swiss have as many as we have here, including the frivolous ones that still cost money).
2. How about statistics of obesity in America vs. Switzerland. (Hmmm, last time I checked we were leading the world with our obesity rates).
3. 2008 shows Switzerland being No. 7 in the top of the least govt. corruption. USA is shown as No. 17 (and that's before we found out about Acorn). I would say we fall past 20 very easily, which means that the US govt. is much more corrupt than the Swiss govt. Corruption leads to fraud. Fraud and unaccountability lead to massive loss of money, money that the tax payers have to pay, just so that the "chunky" bureaucrats don't have to lower their standard of living.
4. How about statistics of how many "parasites" does Switzerland have compared to America? You know, those that are able to but do not want to work, are not productive in the society, and don't pay into the system yet they benefit from it. I would want the editor to look me up in the eyes and dare to tell me that Switzerland has as many welfare and section 8 housing dependents as America has.
5. How about heart attacks, strokes, and other high risk conditions that are the result of a sedentary and poor lifestyle? How is it in both countries and how it compares from one to another?
6. How many illegals do they have in Switzerland that are covered under the system? Do you think he might choke on this question? ;-)
And finally, do you think the above questions should have some answers before an obedient, politically-correct columnist from NY Times rushes to write and dares to say that what they now have in Switzerland will have the same success here in this country? I do.