The government should do whatever it has to do to persuade doctors to give me free healthcare because I shouldn’t have to pay for healthcare. I have a right to healthcare. I have a right to top quality healthcare. Then I can tell those greedy exploitative capitalists to take their job and shove it – while I live out my years on the beach with freedom and dignity. It’s the right thing to do.
OK. That is what we are supposed to believe, and it is exactly what one of my liberal friends believes, but now let’s do what we do best around here and think for ourselves.
One problem that government may be able to fix is the fact that malpractice suits have a surprisingly low correlation with malpractice and a surprisingly high correlation with bedside manner. For example, a patient who suffered a mistake by her general practitioner decided to sue the specialist instead. She explained that she could never sue her general practitioner because she liked her too much.
Note that the rules of lawsuits are defined and enforced by government, so fixing any problem with lawsuits is government fixing government.
Cost
It seems like the only real complaint against American healthcare is cost, but if we think for ourselves, we can easily deduce that those who claim they will help us are disingenuous at best. Watching the mainstream media and the current political leaders, one gets the impression that the cost of healthcare in America is the corruption, waste, and greed of doctors and health insurance companies.
For some reason, hardly anyone in the media or government is talking about the corruption, waste, and greed of politicians. Nor is anyone talking about the government protected AMA monopoly, or about the hidden costs of government regulations and the corruption and waste in existing government healthcare. We hear almost nothing about American epidemic of frivolous lawsuits with outrageous awards against doctors and pharmaceutical companies (compared to other countries).
I've heard no one in the mainstream media (except John Stossel) talking about how the costs of regulations and lawsuits not only directly raise prices, but have also forced many mergers within the healthcare industry, which has reduced competition. When we consider that less competition naturally reduces innovation while increasing prices, and that regulations and lawsuits are defined and enforced by government, we can easily deduce that this is another example of how government is a problem masquerading as its own cure.
Why is hardly anyone in the media and government talking about how we pay more, we also get more? Why isn’t anyone talking about how the best doctors come here because they can make more money.
Why are so few in the media and government telling us how we pay more for healthcare because the government forces doctors to provide healthcare to Medicare and Medicaid patients, and then pays them 25% less than their usual fee, so they make up the difference by charging the rest of us more. We also pay more for healthcare because the government forces doctors and hospitals to treat millions of illegal aliens for free. For example, I paid several thousand dollars for an emergency room visit when one of my children injured himself, but if the son of an illegal immigrant injures himself – I pay for that too – and the illegal immigrant pays nothing.
Freedom
We can easily deduce logical concerns about greater government involvement in healthcare that are widely underreported. I am not just concerned about truly socialized medicine, I have the same concern about any system where the government takes the fruits of labor from some people to pay for the healthcare of others.
My concern is this: If others are paying for my healthcare, then my life choices can cost them more of the fruits of their labor, which gives them the right to regulate my life choices. For example, we might have laws that force us to wear seat belts or motorcycle helmets. We might have laws or taxes that punish us if we smoke, drink alcohol, eat too much meat and fat or too little carbs.
Sometimes the government will be wrong or politically motivated. For example, my blood tests prove that alcohol and fat increase my HDL, which is good, and that carbs increase my triglycerides, which is bad, but the US government disagrees with me.
Politicians criticize some HMOs because they will not pay for a customer to see a specialist or go to the hospital unless they have first received approval from a general practitioner, but what would stop the government from forcing us all to see a general practitioner first – like in Great Britain? What would stop the government from paying a bonus to doctors who send fewer patients to specialists – like in Great Britain?
A local endontist office told me that they get a lot of Canadians who come in for a root canal because the Canadian government has told them that root canals are too expensive, and that it is cheaper to just pull the tooth. Now you should be wondering why Canadians don’t just go to a Canadian endontist and pay for a root canal. The reason is that Canadians lack the basic freedom to pay someone to provide them with healthcare. Private healthcare is illegal in Canada.
Obama
Obama said that his goal is a single payer healthcare system, and he also said that a single payer healthcare system is not his goal, and he also said that his position has always been consistent.
I am finding that many people don’t believe me, so I am including the video links.
Free Healthcare Now!
There is a significant and rather obvious way to provide free healthcare to those who cannot afford it. So what are you waiting for?
Consider that most Obama voters would like to see healthcare provided at no cost to those who cannot afford it. Now when we also consider that Obama got a majority of the popular vote and a majority of the college educated vote, we should be asking, “Why aren’t all those Obama voters making a difference – now – without the government?”
Why aren’t they building free clinics? Why aren’t they volunteering in free clinics? Why aren’t they getting some healthcare training and volunteering? Why aren’t they funding professional healthcare workers who provide free healthcare in private clinics?
Not only could Obama voters make a huge difference now, but such a free-market solution would give them a lot more for their dollar than if they worked through a government bureaucracy. Could leftist hatred of free-market solutions be greater than their desire to help others?
How would this work? If Obama voters were actually willing to provide free healthcare for others, then many organizations would appear overnight offering to provide free healthcare for others. Then each Obama voter could decide which provider was most worthy a donation by evaluating the honesty and mission of each provider. Some providers would be non-profit. Some would only fix physical injuries, while some would only perform organ transplants. Some would be more transparent, and some would allow donors to elect their leaders. Some would help any poor person, while others might only help those who were industrious and responsible but who were overwhelmed by bad luck.
Now consider that if the Obama voters do establish fair, effective, transparent, and efficient non-profit programs to provide free healthcare, then these programs will also attract many dollars from Republicans and conservatives because those guys are even more generous that Democrats and other leftists.
So what are you waiting for? People are literally dying for you to act.
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