I read the news today, oh boy...
Choice quote from this BBC article talking about the EU allowing its subjects to travel to other countries to obtain health care that is either unavailable or has too lengthy of a waiting list in their home country and having the home country pick up the bill with presumably the patients own money;
In the UK, some Labour MPs fear the proposals will lead to an internal market for health and ultimately to the demise of the publicly-funded National Health Service (NHS).
Kind of makes me wonder why they would fear competition if universal health care is the pinnacle of civilization as certain politicians in the US claim?
Fear the market...
I'll give you an example. I live in Italy, Lombardy to be more precise. My area has a number of excellent medical structures, often specialized in rare and difficult diseases. Each year we see a flood of persons coming from Apulia, Campania etc coming here to get their health care, sometimes because they don't have the facilities, more often because the waiting lines there are four or five times ours and some medical procedures cannot be delayed.
Under the current system if a person moves from his Region to another to obtain health care the deal is the following: the Region providing medical assistance will send the bill to the Region whence the patient came. Simple ain't it? Too bad payments are often years in arrear, the southern Regions are even more bankrupt than ours and, despite the immense number of bureaucrats, paperworks will be lost, datas deleted etc.
There's yeat another way of getting healthcare, though: become a politician. Politicians seldom, if ever, use "normal" hospitals, even private, state-of-the-art ones. Either they use military facilities or they go abroad for their health needs (usually Switzerland or the US).
A good way to boost confidence into our local NHS.
It's quite puzzling to me that our country is leaning more and more towards socialized medicine when there is so much evidence pointing out how bad it is for citizens.
Many of the countries that have socialized medicine have numerous problems in delivering health care to their citizens, and the failure of their health care system is getting more and more obvious.
Yet our politicians point to those countries as the utopian model for health care delivery.
I wonder what thoughts run through their head, why they would support this when it's proven to be so horrible? They can't really believe that it's better, can they?
Liberty Dave:Yet our politicians point to those countries as the utopian model for health care delivery.I wonder what thoughts run through their head, why they would support this when it's proven to be so horrible?
I wonder what thoughts run through their head, why they would support this when it's proven to be so horrible?
The answer to this question is contained in your post - they are *politicians*. They will say whatever they think will lead to more power over the citizenry for the ruling class and its State. Never make this mistake of thinking that the State is a beneficent, social entity. It is a parasite - a malevolent, anti-social, criminal class of persons. If you think of the State as a sort of mafia, I promise you that much of your puzzlement will go away when confronted with these sorts of seeming anomalies.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. - Goethe
Good point ozzy43.
I guess most of my puzzlement is really with the people of the United States more than the politicians. Why is it that so many people think socialized medicine is a good idea? There is plenty of evidence that government controlled health care ends up being very bad for its citizens. It must be due to people not educating themselves, not exploring all sides of important issues like this one. They want a quick solution to complex problems.
Problems with our health care system? Quick, let government take it over, the free market obviously doensn't work and isn't fair.
Problem solved!
Liberty Dave:It's quite puzzling to me that our country is leaning more and more towards socialized medicine when there is so much evidence pointing out how bad it is for citizens.
It's only puzzling if you think it's about health care. It isn't. It's about votes.
The left know perfectly well that socialized medicine results in lower standards of health care. And once socialized medicine is implemented the "right" will fall in line and support it too.
Liberty Dave:Why is it that so many people think socialized medicine is a good idea?
The answer is simple. That's what people are told to belive. Look who administers the educational system to most of the people in this country. Do you really think that the government is going to allow someone to criticize the system from an area it controlls? Plus people are bombarded every day from special interests telling them socialized medicine is a good thing. And we all know how good reporters are at ignoring the facts. And since people aren't taught how to think critically anymore, people don't know any better.
Liberty Dave: Good point ozzy43. I guess most of my puzzlement is really with the people of the United States more than the politicians. Why is it that so many people think socialized medicine is a good idea? There is plenty of evidence that government controlled health care ends up being very bad for its citizens. It must be due to people not educating themselves, not exploring all sides of important issues like this one. They want a quick solution to complex problems. Problems with our health care system? Quick, let government take it over, the free market obviously doensn't work and isn't fair. Problem solved!
I suggest you do the following. Take a brief vacation in Italy or France and walk into any NHS-appointed GP office. You'll see rows after rows of men and women, mostly elderly, waiting in line to "see the doctor". Most of these persons are not there to have a check up or to treat some kind of serious illness but to get free drugs or expensive specialized tests. It's the free meal theory.
A few years ago, when the system wasn't still in full swing a GP would give them a complete, serious visit and prescribe as little drugs as possible. Take the classic sore foot example: my old GP would have probably asked me a few questions, examined the foot up closely and told me to rest the foot for a few days and put some ice on it. Come back if the pain persists and we'll have it X-rayed. Case closed. Right now I would enter the GP office expecting him to send me to an orthopedic and perhaps having a full blood test, just to be sure it isn't diabethes. It's free, why not take advantage of it?