Originally posted by Zurich5
God I hope not, any reason Bill as to why you think socialism is on the way. Health care is going to be a watered down welfare state if we don't watch it.
Certainly. The problem is basically a simple question of how far the government's responsibility towards its population. In our arena, we've already got Medicaid and Medicare, and Medicare is well on its way to being expanded to include a major prescription drug benefit package. If you look at historical trends, the federal government has been steadily increasing its sphere of influence, and it's hard to argue philosophically against a national health care system when one of the first explicitly stated goals of the Constitution is "to promote the general welfare." I won't try to predict when or where it'll finally break through, but it's going to happen at some point.
Also, a corollary discussion to the managed care question is one of relative effectiveness. A ton of people go motoring around SDN bemoaning the evils of socialized health care simply because it means we'll get paid less. My perspective on that question is that anyone here who thinks we're somehow <em>entitled</em> to $150k-and-up salaries simply because we've spent four more years in school needs to have their head checked. Yes, it's great that market conditions allow us to charge these rates, but for all the carping professional students do about "we spend so much more valuable time in school than everybody else!!", nobody yet has been able to adequately justify exactly how a fractionally larger portion of our life spent in education results in an exponential increase in income. When I start practicing, I'm comfortable assuming I'll earn at <em>least</em> twice as much as my father--in the first year of my career, and the 30th or so of his. And the disparity will only get larger as time passes.
Meanwhile, we've got millions who can't afford private health insurance, and an intensely litigious society, that combine to exacerbate the problem even further. For every individual who has his life spared by a $75,000 operation, how many die from lack of access to care? Even a minimal, primary-care-only national health care system could leverage a strong potential to increase preventative care levels--and consequently reduce astronominal therapeutic care costs. No, socialized health care isn't as efficient as our current system, and yes, it'll probably flatten out the top end to some degree as it broadens its scope, but I think the potential to improve access to care is significant, and if you actually look up some numbers, the per capita expenditures aren't that different between America and socialized-health countries that have had a few years to work out the kinks.
•NOW.• Having said all that, let me emphasize I'm not necessarily an advocate of socializing health care in America. One post is COMPLETELY inadequate to describe my position on something like health care; here, I've simply been playing devil's advocate to what seems to be the prevailing philosophy. I'd love to hear some responses and debate the topic with some people if anyone is interested, but •ixnay• on the flaming. I'm not interested, and I won't respond.
Cheers!
😀
