-By Dan Scott
In a desperate bid to legitimize a government take over of the health care industry; Democrats now are seeking to gain political cover and traction with the recent death of Senator Ted Kennedy. Senator Kennedy died of brain cancer this week, a condition that on average had a 33% survival rate over 5 years. To say the least, his condition was one no one would wish upon another human being. So it is interesting that Democrats wanting to use Senator Kennedy’s death from this horrible disease fail to recognize the irony of their shallow maneuver. Given the life years and the efficacy requirements that would judge the cost effectiveness of a treatment, in all likelihood, Senator Kennedy at age 77, would have been denied treatment or even worse under a government run system rationing the dollars allocated to health care would not be attempting improve the efficacy of such treatments.
As more information comes to light regarding what is in HR 3200, the public is increasingly opposing the bill and seeing the disconnect between what President Obama says the bill will do versus what is actually written in it. This disconnect is highlighted by the faulty premise that underlies the idea of government run health care. Even if a quote single payer system is not implemented, health care will still be government run by the virtue of the fact Congress has usurped authority to be calling the shots via legislation imposing rules and regulations that are contrary to free market principles.
The premise of government run health care is to limit the total dollar amount spent for the population as a whole due to an individual’s ability to pay under the guise of providing equal access to everyone. Whereas, under the current free market system there is no such limitation due to overall cost. Otherwise why are they wanting to eliminate a successful program like Medicare Advantage for seniors to obtain more money for uninsured people? The only limitation is the individual’s ability to pay for any particular medical procedure. Does it not occur to Democrats and liberals that those who are financially well off provide the seed money for new treatments that will in the long run SAVE money on a per treatment basis because medical providers are taking the risk to find ever more effective means to offer these treatments to a greater number of people? The profit premise that modern capitalism operates under is sales volume. Yes, the total spent on health care is more under the current system than in a government run system such as Canada or England. Why? Because medical providers in our current free market system are continually developing more treatments for the purpose of making a significant profit from customers who have the ability to pay. So whose money is it to spend in the first place?
The underlying assumption of the liberal care plan is a zero sum game. Since when is capitalism subject to zero sum solutions? As soon as the government gets involved a zero sum paradigm is created. Furthermore, I find it troubling that liberals miss the point of how medicine advances, by the risk/reward paradigm of trial and error. Patients who are terminally ill like Senator Kennedy due to the CURRENT state of medical technology are the sources of innovation and inspiration for better treatments. In short, a government bureaucratic solution using outcome based medicine maybe financially cost effective initially but costly to society indefinitely. The bureaucracy ALWAYS stifles creativity by its very definition. Following the current “best practice” NEVER leads to a more effective practice since it is committed to following the existing ones. Thus unfortunate people, like Senator Kennedy under the liberal plan would be continually condemned to death by the stinginess of bureaucrats in the name of society. All one needs to do is look at Canada and England to see the end game of government control of health care, rationing via denial and delay. Why else are their cancer survival rates worse than ours? Ironic indeed…
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Dan Scott calls himself a “Member of the Global Capitalist Cabal preaching Capitalism and personal responsibility as the economic solution to world poverty.” He is also a member of the 14th Amendment Society — victimhood is a liberal code word for denying the civil rights of others. He is also a proud member of the Global Warming Denier Cabal, insisting that facts not agendas determine the truth.
Dan can be seen on the web at http://www.geocities.com/fightbigotry2002/ as well as http://www.geocities.com/dscott8186/saidwebpage.htm, And can be reached for comments at dscott8186@yahoo.com.
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