Why Socialized Medicine Is Not the Answer, Why Michael Moore is wrong about healthcare (by an ND/MD)

makes total sense!
Take that michael!

"On health care McKinney states, "I've supported every universal single payer health care plan. She goes on to state, “People who rail against `socialized medicine' in Canada and the UK have to explain why life expectancy is longer in Canada and the UK, why infant mortality is lower in Canada and the UK" (Deeth). McKinney further denounces the war in Iraq stating that the money being squandered could be better used on social programs such as rebuilding New Orleans, child nutrition, and health care, stating in part, “one billion dollars a day can provide medical care for the 47 million Americans who don’t have health insurance” (McKinney)."

I would expect that life expectancy is greater in the U.K. and Canada for many reasons, one critical but always neglected part is that our federal government subsidizes cheap food and agribusiness, thus supporting the corn-industrial complex which sells junk-food as food and now, as whole foods and healthy foods, along with a tremendous amount of junk food that is sold as junk food.

The source you cite, McKinney, says that it will only cost 1 billion dollars a day to take care of the 47 million uninsured in medical treatment in this country. That's 365 billion a year. That's a cost of 7765 per covered person per year. However, under socialized medicine everyone is covered. If we use the figure quoted by McKinney times the population of the USA (300 million) we find that it will cost 2 329 500 000 000, or approximately the current federal budget. That doesn't include the increase in demand created by "free" healthcare which could easily double or triple or otherwise multiply that number. That number is about 20 percent of the GDP. According to a pro-universal health care outfit, that's the amount that would otherwise be reached by 2015. http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml . That's a significant difference that would be multiplied. An extra five, ten, or twenty percent out of peoples pockets will create mass impoverishment and widespread suffering.

The numbers don't work, based solely supply and demand. We are a nation of consumers now, not producers, so we have a lot less to loot to support this mad scheme. The current problems were created by the government, so you propose to dramatically multiply the role and scope of government in health care. I can not afford to pay for my own health care, so you propose I pay for everyone elses health care, and my health care will be paid by everyone else. The key part you omit from your understanding of this plan is that that everyone else can't afford their health care - so they won't be able to afford mine.

Government has again usurped the role of the monarchy - it's powers are those held in times past by those allegedly descended from gods. It is not possible to wave the magic wand of legislation and use the powers of government to take what it wants from people and force them to obey to achieve acts of good. To actually fix our medical system would require a miracle, a genuine miracle, i.e. divine intervention to set things right no matter how impossible the reality. A massive Jesus with the loaves of bread routine would be necessary to efficiently create a huge increase in supply of a wide variety of expensive pieces of infrastructure and equipment and skilled labor needed to treat everyone in the country for all of their medical problems. That's not possible in reality. It would also take another miracle to keep the corruption and incompetence and waste down to the point where the cost would be comparable to other countries. That too is not possible if the program is inherently corrupt by being completely contrary to the American principles of law and liberty.

The government doesn't have the ability to work miracles. It can't change reality. It is very easy to propose solutions. There is a great saying, "The difference between theory and practice is that in theory there is no difference". The magic wand of government has been aimed at poverty, drugs, terrorism, food, education, and many other areas of our lives, and in each case, it has made new problems without solving the old problems.

The unfortunate reality is that life sucks in many ways. There isn't enough of everything for everyone. People get sick. People die. People get sick and die when they could have been saved. I agree we should try something new, but more of the same isn't the solution. I believe in time you will see your dream granted, and then you will see that it is a nightmare you have created. Our society is already falling apart, you wish to accelerate it. I shudder at the thought of the consequences to what we call medicine in this country under any such plan of federal government controlled health care. It will guarantee America becoming a Third World nation.