Government-Controlled Health Care: A Socialized Mess

I met a doctor recently and we found out we were fans of the same football team. After talking football for a little while, we got into politics to see if we were on the same team in that area as well. He said that he hadn't really been into politics until the idea came up that the government should take over health care.

So, being an inquiring mind, I wanted to know his thoughts on it as a medical professional.

He started by telling me that if the government took control of the United States with system like Canada or the UK that there could only be a certain number of medical students (or dental, chiropractic, etc.) per year based on the perceived need. The government would choose who could go to medical school and force the others to pursue an alternate career or wait another year to see if the government would allow them to go to school (sounding like communism yet?).

He paused for a minute and said, "Doesn't sound much like the American dream, does it?" He mentioned that Canadian students who had dreamed of being doctors all their lives were coming to the United States to be educated because their government only allowed a certain number. And it wasn't the smartest and brightest that they allowed it. It was a selection similar to affirmative action where they picked a certain number of this color, gender, etc. instead of just taking the top x percent in terms of academics. So if your child is dreaming of being a doctor because he wants to help people...you'd better hope the government will allow him to go to school to learn how. If the U.S. adopts the Canadian/UK system, there's no where else he can go. The U.S. is the last free country in terms of pursuing that dream.

He went on to say that the government would also determine how many doctors were allowed to practice in a certain area. And once that number had been met, no more doctors would be allowed to practice. So current doctors, if they didn't make the magic number (again, not based on performance but on the PC obsession of an affirmative action type of approach), would have to move to where they were allowed to practice. And a certain percentage will have to stop practicing completely because the government decides how many are needed. So if you've been a doctor all your life and the government says the country doesn't need you, I guess you have to find another career.

So let's say you have a doctor who you really trust, who's delivered your babies and helped you through sniffles and tummy aches and you want him as your doctor family doctor BUT the government forbids him/her to practice in your area because they (the government) have taken over and decide that your area already has enough.

Does that sound like freedom to you? Where instead of the people deciding how many doctors they want the government tells them how many they can have? Does that sound best for the the patients? Or the doctor? It certainly doesn't to me.

He then went on to talk about people in Canada and the UK on waiting lists for health care. The enormous tax hikes and the way that government would impose itself on health care providers and patients. "Why do you think there are nonprofit American clinics who accept sick Canadian who are waiting for treatment in Canada and are risking their lives doing so? And why do you think Canadian doctors want to work here in the United States?"

Again, is their system what you call freedom?

Here's a quote I think sums up a lot of this: "But the problem with universal health care is worse than dirty, rat-infested hospitals with the normal hospital staff replaced with uncaring bureaucrats straight out of the DMV. In Canada and Britain, which both have this type of socialized health care, actual health care services are strictly rationed. I’ve read more reports than I care to count of people whose doctors don’t care one bit for them, and just move them through “routine” visits, and of people who die while on months-long waiting lists for necessary life-saving procedures such as emergency heart surgery. In fact, this is the norm in every country with socialized health care." Source

And that leads me to this question. Right now, when I go to a doctor he/she wants me to be happy with the way I'm treated. Why? Because if I don't like it, I can go to another doctor right down the road. Heck, I'm free to go to another city if I want and pick any doctor I want. So he/she is going to go the extra mile to take care of me and my family because I have duel value to them. I'm a person for one and most of us care about humanity in general. But on those days when we want the world to stick it where the sun doesn't shine, there's another powerful motivator--money. It might sound shallow, but if we're honest we'll say it motivates us all to one degree or another. It does with doctors too because that's how they provide for their families. So I know that he/she not only cares about me as a person, but as a customer. He has double the reason to take care of me. He wants me to choose to come back to him the next time I need help because I was treated right. Likely in your line of work, you have a policy of treating your customer right so that he'll return to do business with you again. But with universal health care, it's like going to the post office. You're a number. You're another person in line. If you aren't happy with the way your doctor treated you, tough. Nothing you can do about it because you're not the customer anymore--the government is. It's not like you can fire them whereas under the current free market system, you can fire them by choosing someone else. But based on Canada's system (which is what Hillary and Obama say is the pattern) you can't just go to another doctor. Why? Well remember all the numbers we talked about above in terms of doctors in a certain area? That's based on the population. If you go to another doctor you've messed up the numbers. If you're lucky enough to be in a highly populated area, you might actually be able to choose between a few different doctors. But again, your choices are limited to that group and the government is going to keep the number close to balanced meaning they could put a lockdown on patients changing doctors. Basically, when the government takes over, you rights go bye bye.

That's why the private sector and competition is good. To borrow a slogan from a money-loaning group, when DOCTORS compete, you win. Most of the time, there's more motivation to do what's best for the client. Trust me, you'd much rather be a client than the next person on the list of people who don't have the freedom to shop around.

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