The Evil of Socialized Medicine

[shagdrum]

The Evil of Socialized Medicine
By Andrew Bernstein (Washington Times, September 26, 2004)

That Bill Clinton could get the emergency heart care his survival required within 3 days underscores a life-and-death difference between medicine under capitalism and under socialism.

Under the system of socialized medicine in Canada and Europe, people die because waiting lists to see doctors are too long to permit them to receive cardiac care in time to save their lives. In Canada, for example, a patient typically must wait 24 days for an appointment with a cardiologist--and 15 additional days for the type of emergency bypass surgery that saved Bill Clinton's life. Similarly, a Swedish government survey showed that Swedes can be forced to wait as long as 11 months for a diagnostic heart X-ray and up to 8 months for essential heart surgery. The upshot, according to one research cardiologist, is that at least 1,000 Swedes die each year for lack of heart treatment.

The moral belief in the right to health care beyond what an individual can afford--health care at other people's expense--leads inevitably to demand for unnecessary or superficial care that clogs doctors' offices, overfills hospitals and tasks the health care system beyond its capacities. The predictable result is the endless waiting lists of socialized medicine.

The choice facing Americans is stark: the rights-respecting free market of capitalism, where goods and services are produced in abundance, including health care--or the chronic disasters of socialism, where thousands die because of continuous shortages.

 

[foxpaws]

A few facts about our health care system, compared to OECD countries.
Note: this is not from WHO, which I believe doesn't really show the US in a very good light - or realistically. Our healthcare system is better than 37th in the world, which is where WHO has it...

This is from AMSA...

The United States spent 15% of its GDP on health care in 2003, the highest percentage in the OECD (an organization of industrialized countries). The average percentage of GDP spent on health care in OECD countries was 8.6%. The United States also spends more on health care per capita thanany other OECD country. In 2003, total health spending per capita was $5,635 US dollars (adjusted for purchasing power parity), more than twice
the OECD average of $2,307 US dollars.

Between 1998 and 2003, health spending per capita in the United States increased in real terms by 4.6% per year on average, a growth rate comparable to the OECD average of 4.5% per year.

The public sector is the main source of health funding in all OECD countries, except for the United States, Mexico and Korea. In the United States, 44% of health spending is funded by government revenues, well below the average of 72% in OECD countries. In the United States, private insurance accounts for 37% of total health spending, by far the largest share among OECD countries. Canada, France, and the Netherlands also have a relatively large share of funding coming from private insurance (more than 10%).

Resources in the health sector (human, physical)
• In 2002, the United States had 2.3 practicing physicians per 1000 population, below the OECD average of 2.9 per 1000 population.
• There were 7.9 nurses per 1000 population in the United States in 2002, below the OECD average of 8.2 per 1000 population.
• The number of acute care hospital beds in the United States in 2003 was 2.8 per 1000 population, below the OECD average of 4.1 beds per 1000 population.

Health status and risk factors
Most OECD countries have enjoyed large gains in life expectancy over the past 40 years. In the United States, life expectancy at birth increased by 7.3 years between 1960 and 2002, which is less than the increase of 14 years in life expectancy in Japan, or of 8.4 years in Canada. In 2002/3, life expectancy in the United States stood at 77.2 years, below the OECD average of 77.8 years. Japan, Iceland, Spain, Switzerland and Australia were among the top 5 countries registering the highest life expectancy among OECD countries.

What I thought was interesting is that private insurance only accounts for 37% of our health care costs... So, basically it looks like the government already pays for 63% of the health care costs in the US.

 

[Calabrio]

What I thought was interesting is that private insurance only accounts for 37% of our health care costs... So, basically it looks like the government already pays for 63% of the health care costs in the US.

Presuming the 37% figure is accurate, why assume the rest is paid by the government and not individuals?