As the disaster of Obamacare continues to progress, there is
much debate about the merits of socialized (nationalized) healthcare. When we say healthcare, it is really
referring to medical care, because the system certainly isn’t taking care of
our health.
Some critics of Obamacare correctly stated, even prior to
its implementation, that it could be a stepping stone to fully socialized
healthcare. Ironically, it is
because Obamacare is such a disaster that it is possible it could end up being
true.
Millions of people have been kicked off of their insurance
plans because they were made illegal by Obamacare. Meanwhile, the people who have enrolled in an insurance plan
are finding out just how expensive it is, even with a government subsidy.
The proponents of socialized healthcare will blame the
current system on capitalism and free markets. Of course, there is almost no such thing in our current
system. Even before Obamacare was
passed and implemented, the U.S. system of healthcare was nothing close to
capitalistic.
The current system is more fascist/ corporatist. It is not fully socialistic because the
government doesn’t own the means of production. It just dictates nearly every little thing and it extracts
money to pay for the majority of the medical care that takes place.
If you want to see anything resembling a free market system
in healthcare, you would have to go back to the 1950’s in the United States,
although it was not a fully free market at that time either. But it was a much more capitalistic
system then, and it showed in the quality and price of medical care.
Not only is health insurance and medical care really
expensive today, it isn’t all that great either. The advancement in technology has been wonderful, although
not nearly as great as it would have been in a free market environment. And if you need emergency care, there
is probably no better place to be in the world than a big city in the United
States.
With that said, the prevalence of diseases and disorders,
particularly in the U.S., is staggering.
And the medical establishment’s solution in the majority of cases is to
push drugs on the patients. Even
worse, doctors push drugs on patients for problems that the patient wasn’t even
complaining about. I hate to sound
like a leftist here, but the profits of the doctors and the pharmaceutical
companies are put ahead of the well being of the patient. But it is important to know that this
is the environment created by a government-controlled healthcare system.
In this sense, there are actually advantages of a socialist
healthcare system over the fascist one we have now. I think in some cases, it would actually be beneficial for
some people to stay away from the doctor when they have a little ailment, or
even sometimes a bigger one. Going
to the doctor can sometimes lead to a worse outcome. And going to a hospital is really dangerous, as thousands of
people die every year from going into a hospital from some kind of an infection
or ailment that they didn’t suffer from upon entering.
In a socialized healthcare system, people are actually less
likely to seek medical treatment, simply because it isn’t as available. So while this would generally seem like
a bad thing, it can actually be less harmful to a patient, at least in some
cases.
The other advantage a socialist healthcare system would have
over our current one is that your insurance would no longer be tied to your
employer. The U.S. system is a
total disaster just from this alone.
People have to worry about switching jobs because their health insurance
is tied to their job.
While the U.S. is supposed to be the land of opportunity and
entrepreneurship, the health insurance system strongly discourages
entrepreneurship. It makes it far
harder to start a business and quit a full time job because of the threat of
losing health insurance. It is
actually far easier to be self-employed in Canada because you don’t have to
worry about your health coverage status changing if you leave your job.
Again, this was all the case before Obamacare ever came into
being. Obamcare has just made
everything worse in the U.S.
This is by no means a call for socialized healthcare. I am just saying that people shouldn’t
be so fearful of such a system because we already have a really bad system.
The one thing I am thankful for in our current system is
that it is still legal to choose a doctor of your choice and make an agreement
to pay that doctor for his services.
At least the government isn’t telling you who you have to see or can’t
see, at least not directly.
The only way we will see a significant improvement in the
U.S. healthcare system is if we move in a direction of freer markets and less
government. It should start with a
repeal of Obamacare, but it can’t stop there. We need to get the government to back off in many ways and
that includes both the federal government and state governments.
If we returned to a more free market system such as that of
the 1950’s, coupled with today’s technology, we would see medical care that
would be extremely cheap and effective.
It would mean countless saved lives and likely a much higher life expectancy.