why socialized medicine is wrong, wrong, wrong
5 reasons to reconsider before jumping on the socialized medicine bandwagon.
- What if I don’t want traditional health care? Traditional health care as I see it: (1) muddle through life, eating doritos, getting minimal exercise; (2) get sick; (3) go to the doctor; (4) doctor prescribes some drug pushed by big pharma, and that probably causes as many problems as it fixes; (5) repeat. What if this is not how I want my health care to be? Maybe instead, my health care program is eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, doing yoga, and getting good amounts of exercise? Is socialized medicine going to pay for my diet, yoga, or gym membership? Where do you draw the line? The problem is, there is no line between health care and other facets of life, such as diet and exercise.
- What if I don’t want health care? This is just a different take on the first point. Maybe I don’t want “health care” (in the traditional sense) at all, because I am skeptical of it’s real healing value. Should I still pay for it? Or maybe I’m truly crazy and buying a new kayak is more valuable to me than getting painkillers for my arthritis. In a free system, the choice is mine, in socialized medicine, it’s not.
- Why should I pay for people who aren’t taking care of themselves? I work hard to take good care of myself. I make sacrifices to keep my body in decent shape. If you aren’t making those sacrifices, why should I be forced to make further sacrifices to deal with the consequences of your actions?
- Where is the incentive to take care of yourself? Under socialized medicine, there’s no financial incentive for obvious reasons. You may argue that the incentive is that it sucks to be sick, and that’s enough incentive. I’ll concede that it’s some incentive, though with modern pain and consciousness-reducing drug technology, I’m not even sure how much of an incentive remains..
- Giving and receiving. Under a free health care system, those with less may need help with health care. When they get help, it is because some person or community has offered it to them out of compassion. A gift was given and received. Forcing the giver (through taxation) eliminates the act of giving/receiving and replaces it with stealing/welfare. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather live in a world with a risk of selfishness and a whole lot more giving and receiving than a world with no giving/receiving and only stealing and welfare.
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:03 pm
1. Preventative care (ie. staying in good health) is hugely important, but there’s no reason it can’t be part of socialized medicine. It certainly isn’t part of our current system. As far as I know, European health care generally puts far more of an emphasis on staying healthy so you don’t need expensive treatment. Which is probably why we pay twice as much per capita for health care.
2. No one doesn’t want health care. Ask someone having heart attack or who’s just been shot if they want to opt out of the system.
3. You already are paying for other people’s health care. You pay when private insurance companies jack up their rates because unhealthy people are hurting their bottom line. You pay when the uninsured get treated at (far more expensive) emergency rooms in public hospitals. You pay when chronically ill co-workers are less productive and you have to pick up the slack. A system that covers everyone, and gives the people on the bottom a higher standard of care than they’re getting now, cuts down on all of those costs.
4. Do people take care of themselves or not take care of themselves for financial reasons? I’m not sure that factors into too many people’s thinkings. In fact, in my experience it’s the other way around - I take care of myself better when I can afford to. As it is, two of my teeth are crumbling to pieces, and I’ve put off doing anything about it because I don’t have insurance. And my teeth are crumbling to pieces because I couldn’t afford regular cleanings because I didn’t have insurance. If I’d had dental insurance all along, I would have done more preventative care (back to #1), and I wouldn’t need the expensive, time-consuming extraction and crown I’m going to need in the next 6 months.
5. Oh come on. Health care is a necessity. It shouldn’t exist on a gift-giving basis. We don’t pave the roads or police our streets on a charity system, and no one complains that the Army is “stealing” your tax dollars in order to keep you safe. It’s completely disingenuous to paint a rosy picture of a world of “giving and receiving” in which cash-strapped hospitals have to lay off essential personnel if some wealthy donor doesn’t come through with a grant. And a system that everyone pays into and everyone receives benefits from isn’t “stealing” or “welfare” any more than you’re “stealing” interest from your bank account or getting “welfare” when your car insurance pays for a new fender. It’s a completely disingenuous argument, which conservatives use to mask the real argument - why should a dime of my hard-inherited money go to some lousy crippled children?
January 13th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I’ve responded to this comment in this post.