More on Socialized Medicine

Gary wrote- "recent polls indicate a majority, around 62% if I remember correctly, favor universal health care even if it means a tax increase."

That's because the way the question reads implies the amount of taxes paid will be less than their current insurance premiums.

Gary wrote, "And why the big fear of the word "socialized"?

Because it means someone else has control of my life. Socialism is force and aggression. It is not voluntary.

Gary wrote, "We have 'socialized' fire and police services, schools, utilities, mail, etc, and it seems to work pretty well."

Pretty well! Compared to what? Government schools do not work as well as private schools. Government security does not work as well as private security. Government roads that kill 40,000 people each year would not tolerate such carnage if they were privatized.

Gary wrote, "There are some areas of life and society where government-provided services just make more sense than private, free market solutions."

How would you know? Have you ever tried private security, private mail, private schools, private roads, etc.? The only purpose of government is to protect our natural rights to live as free individuals! If its purpose is to provide some services, why not a government store where we all buy the same jeans, shirts, and ovens? Wait, that's exactly what the new Marxism is when it comes to global warming. No more unnecessary goods and services.

You use the same tactic that most socialists use in saying the free market health care in the U. S. is not working. Gary, there is no free market health care in the U. S. That is the problem! Write on the chalk board 500 times, "The U. S. health care system is 'NOT' a free market system.

Gary wrote, "To me, there is something innately discordant about for-profit health care. The two parties involved, the insurance companies and the patients, are immediatelyat odds with each other, since the insurance company's profits are endangered with every claim they approve."

That's why insurance contracts specify what is covered and what is not. However most buyers of insurance do not know what is in their contract because government or labor has required the employer to buy group insurance. There are also more than two parties involved. They are; the patient, insurance company, doctor, hospital, pharmacy, and in too many cases, the biggest gorilla, the government. If you want to imagine a free market in health care, try to imagine one where there is no one involved except the patient and the doctor and no government involvement and no insurance company. Then you would see the patient negotiating with the doctor. You would also see many expensive tests and procedures not ordered. There is more harmony in a free market with for-profit motives. In socialism, as in free markets, each individual is trying to get through life with the most pleasure and the least pain. People who advocate for socialism simply think they will benefit more. Government to them is community property. They worship big government that can use force on them, and deplore big business that cannot force them to do anything.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people think the government can make all our problems go away. If we had a completely egalitarian socialist society, some people would be all in a dither because some were happier than others, or some were taller than others. Good Samaritans never are happy. They always need a cause to feel important. It reminds me of "Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887", by socialist Edward Bellamy, cousin to Francis Bellamy, another socialist who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance, worshiping the State. "Looking Backward" is where a man falls into a coma in 1887 and awakens to a utopian socialist world in 2000 where the government owns and runs everything. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bellamy It was published in 1888 and was a best seller. People long for something, anything, to make their trials and tribulations disappear. They want safety, even if it means giving up their freedoms. If you go to a government prison you give up your freedom, but you are not safe.

People in America continue to give up their freedoms when they give the government responsibility. The government employees love being responsible for your health. That means their numbers will grow, and their power, and they will eventually have the authority to tell you what to eat and how much exercise you must do. Each group loves authority to be used to force others to behave; pro life, environment, war, religion, drugs, prostitution, flag burning, etc. So many people want to take away a little freedom here and a little there until we have none left.

Charles

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe