Jan 27 2008
The Horrors Of Socialized Medicine
When medical treatment becomes limited because all the incentives have been taken out of the activity, when the best and brightest move onto other fields, where government rations healthcare instead of businesses competing for patients, you get the horrors of socialized medicine. And one horror is how rationing a limited resource with limited competence can lead to an ugly form of triage (it may be worth reviewing the definition of triage here):
Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone.
Fertility treatment and “social” abortions are also on the list of procedures that many doctors say should not be funded by the state.
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About one in 10 hospitals already deny some surgery to obese patients and smokers, with restrictions most common in hospitals battling debt.
Somehow America is able to provide health care for everyone in need because America kept health care from being a government run disaster – This is what Hillary-care would bring this nation if we were ever fools enough to believe the spin from the left. How is it people who work and pay taxes are then barred from the services their money pays for? What about the crippled, or those with hard to fight cancers. Will the UK simply claim they ran out of money and doctors, as if this shortage was some act of God, some part of normal life??
The fact the UK is short on money and doctors and nurses and facilities is due to their socialized medical care. There are actually a lot of doctors and nurses and facilities – in private gap insurance groups the white collar workers pay extra for. And still, with a portion of the country paying for its own insurance on top of the withering state run system, the UK cannot support its own people’s medical needs. Reminds me of all the tough pregnancies Canada sends to the US each year because they can’t deal with simply sustaining their population it seems (Canada is the other socialized medicine basket case.
The fact this crime against a free people is even being discussed should be a wake up call to the UK it is time to dump their medical system. And it sure as hell should be a reminder to America about how great our system is, warts and all, compared to the rest of the world. Socialized medicine is government rationing. And government rationing goes to those with clout and power. I wonder if the UK would have withheld treatment from the cigar-smoking, constantly drinking Winston Churchill? My guess is they would find a convenient exemption the common person could never get, and therefore would have to die to save money for the crown.
AJ:
I work in health care and I have seen people denied insurance because of their habits or some chronic condition. I have seen HMOs decide they will not pay for certain treatments for certain people. I have seen people not poor enough to get medicaid, but not rich enough to afford certain medicines suffer strokes and heart attacks because they were not being properly treated.
I am not an advocate of socialized medicine, but no system is perfect. And I don’t think the Europeans or Canadians are in any hurry to change their system.
One thing that I do find interesting, is that I have read that countries like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have very good health care systems. One would not expect that.
Like democracy, no health care system is perfect, but a ours is the best by far.
You should have expected fantastic health care in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States (of which Bahrain is one) They are both kingdoms, and both sets of royalty are fabulously wealthy and getting wealthier every day. Fantastic and free health care is one of the perks that a wealthy king can provide to his people. It also helps that both countries have small populations relative to most other countries. Bahrain, with only 700,000 persons, ranks as a single mid-sized American city, a city that’s earning $1 billion per day from the oil it’s sitting on.
The Saudi royals made the devil’s bargain some years ago of also buying peace with their people (in other words the right to continue controlling 99% of the country’s wealth) by hiring scads of radical preachers who whip up the mobs with the message that “the west is bad, the king is good!” That wealth combined with that mendacity is the original source of most of our troubles in the region.
Also if you look at those smaller mideast places gold trinkets are at flea markets there like crock pots on sale here and most of the ‘work’ is done by 3rd world imports from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and such for the we won’t dirty our hands labor.
There is no class and high class and an almost non existent middle class except for business owners contracting the 3rd world types.
As far as socialized medicine and rationing for profile reasons like smoking or obesity.
Imagine the backlash if for example someone says gays with aids where SOl..
Certain cities heads would just explode
AJ said: “Somehow America is able to provide health care for everyone in need because America kept health care from being a government run disaster.”
Do you not read the news? There are close to 50 million uninsured people in this country. The number has increased significantly in the last few years alone. Many cannot get insurance because they cannot afford it, but an increasing number of people cannot get it because the insurance companies won’t insure anyone who has a risk factor. I have a friend who makes a combined income (with her husband) of more than $200,000 and she cannot get insurance because she has certain allergies. Just one example of what many people face today. You only need to look at the political polls to know that health care is a major concern for most in this country for a reason – it is failing. Socialized medicine may not be the answer, but neither is staying the course.