Single Payer Healthcare?
|
|
|
By R.D. Skidmore, Prof.
Those who ballyhoo single payer government controlled healthcare sing its praises night and day as if it is 'messiah'; while knowing that our members of congress will never use this system!
For anyone to support the nationalization of healthcare, we are asked to accept three arguments that are fundamentally absurd:
First that the same government that pioneered $400 hammers, and $600 toilet seats is somehow going to control healthcare costs;
Second that the same government that runs FEMA is going to make our health care system more efficient and responsive;
Third that the same government that runs the IRS is going to make our healthcare more compassionate and understanding.
The leading countries touted as examples of nationalized healthcare are Canada, Britain, and Sweden. So we should use there experience as a baseline to judge the value of nationalized healthcare.
Complied below are but a very few of their news headlines on their success that you may read and decide for yourself the benefits derived. If you are reading this on the WEB these are linked so one may read the entire article. We call this research.
|
|
ADVERTISEMENT |
|
|
Sweden has often been hailed as the model for socialized medicine. Here is what is reported in her papers:
1. Doctors miss fist-sized brain tumour; 6 Aug 09, The Local, Sweden's News in English
2. Docs tell 83-year-old Swede she's 'too old' for treatment; 83-year-old woman was forced to pay for back surgery out of her own pocket after doctors at her local public hospital told her she was too old for the treatment.; 24 Jul 09, The Local, Sweden's News in English
3. Welfare board to investigate baby's death; The doctor is suspected of euthanasia by injecting the then three-month-old baby; 7 Mar 09, The Local, Sweden's News in English,
4. Swedish woman allowed to seek treatment for 'Coke' addiction; Court rules woman may seek treatment-Permission Granted.; 19 Jan 09, The Local, Sweden's News in English.
5. Budgetary woes plague many Swedish counties; Too many people access government health resources and not enough taxes are collected. Demand is greater than the revenues can support; 9 Oct 08, The Local, Sweden's News in English
6. Swedes face near tripling of health costs; 29 Jul 08, The Local, Sweden's News in English
7. Mother in the red after costly childbirth; "I was obviously forced to give birthŠ" Woman received a bill for almost 65,000 kronor ($9,000) after giving birth at Uppsala University Hospital; 5 Aug 09, The Local, Sweden's News in English
8. Woman given cancer medicine to treat headache; "Simple way to do the elderly in"; 4 Apr 09, The Local, Sweden's News in English
9. Sweden tightens healthcare rules for illegal immigrants, Can't afford free health to everyone. It's too expensive; 22 May 08, The Local, Sweden's News in English
Remember that Social Security is bankrupt, as is Medicare, Medi-Cal, and the State of California. The National Debt is rising such that China does not want to buy anymore of our debt (loan us more dollars). If government cannot run its own affairs can one reasonably expect it to run a National Healthcare System?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Skidmore Archives
|
The American Healthcare Debate
|
Economice we know
|
How will we finish the story of America?
|
The Modern Little Red Hen"
A Story of Government Economics |
| Partial Birth Abortion Vs Bush |
| A New Teacher rating system |
| A State of Education |
| Thanksgiving Blessings |
| Medicare profits on the loose |
|
From the British papers we read:
|
1. Patients forced to live in agony after NHS refuses to pay for painkilling injections -Tens of thousands with chronic back pain forced to live in agony after a decision to slash the number of painkilling injections issued on the NHS. 2 Aug 2009, Laura Donnelly; Telegraph
2. A9-month wait for arthritis treatment: Delay can mean a lifetime of agony for victims - Danile Martin, Daily Mail [(UK)] accessed 17 July 2009
3. Kidney cancer patients denied life-saving drugs by NHS rationing body NICE - April 29, 2009 [Daily Mail (UK)]
4. Disabled children wait up to two years for wheelchairs
- March 4, 2009 [Guardian Unlimited]
5. Hundreds of operations cancelled at Lothian hospitals
- Adam Morris, February 19, 2009 [The Scotsman]
6. Stop asking for antibiotics to cure coughs and colds, Government tells patients - Daniel Martin, February 17, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]
7. The NHS wins when its patients die -Charles Moore, 03 Jan 2009 [Telegraph]
8. Pensioner, 76, forced to pull out own teeth after 12 NHS dentists refuse to treat her - Olinka Koster, March 26, 2008 [Daily Mail(UK)]
9. Women in labour turned away by maternity units - John Carvel, March 21, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited] Women in labour are being refused entry to overstretched maternity units and told to give birth elsewhere.
10. Cancer patients told life-prolonging treatment is too expensive for NHS
- Lyndsay Moss, February 13, 2007 [The Scotsman]
|
The Virtues of the Canadian Health Care as reported from their papers:
|
- Wait times for surgery, medical treatments at all-time high:
- October 15, 2007 [CBC News (Canada)]
- Patients shouldn't wait more than 8 weeks for cardiac defibrillator: experts
- May 24, 2005 [Canadian Press]
- Canadian medical tourists in India
- Jeremy Copeland, September 20, 2004 [CBC News]
- Need surgery? Here's how long you'll wait
"It's inhuman. The quality of my life is horrible and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it." - Jason Fekete, July 28, 2004 [Calgary Herald]
- Waiting lists for health care: A necessary evil? -Richard F. Davies, MD, PhD, May 18 1999, [the Canadian Medical Association]
|
|
Thanks for reading
R.D. Skidmore is a professor at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Ca. He may be contacted at rskidmor49@excite.com
|
|
