When I’m out on the town, escaping reality for half a friggin’ second, the last thing I want to hear is how much my glass of Blackstone will cost me when universal health care becomes policy under the Dreaded Democrats.
Lance Dickie / Seattle Times editorial columnist warned us back in 2005 to expect demonization of UHC in one of many forms: “Spare me the shibboleths and scare tactics — — Hillarycare, waiting lines for MRI’s in Canada, the government picking your doctor, the Prussian and commie menace of socialized medicine. Disinformation and selective data from the usual think tanks has lost their sting.”
The New England Journal of Medicine predicted way back in 1980 that our country’s health care system was indeed “corrosive.” In fact, every single outcome under our market-based system has come to pass:
• More than 40 million uninsured
• Continued gaps in safety net coverage
• Double-digit health plan rate increases
• Smaller employers cutting coverage or even dropping health plans
• Increased copayments and deductibles for employees
• Large rate increases for private insurers in shrinking markets
• Numerous failures of HMOs and withdrawal from the market by larger
insurance companies
• Continued cost shifting in an increasingly fragmented market
• Continued inflation of health care costs–(Crisis in Health Care, 1990)
So what gives with all the scare tactics, i.e. Canada as this country evolves towards a single-payer system of universal health care? “Everyone keeps his or her doctor and, more to the point, everyone will have one. The medical-delivery system — physicians, hospitals and pharmaceuticals — stays private, but the paperwork and bills are routed through and paid by the federal government.”
With so many health advantages for everyday Americans, for what good reason would our elected officials support decreasing access to those they serve?
Back in the 1990’s, “iron triangle” of closely allied stakeholders in the pro-market health care system (business, the insurance industry, the medical profession) kept universal health care from the masses. At this point, “the corporate class will promulgate the myths…in well-funded campaigns of disinformation.”
Even that mind-set is changing.
“The refrain from business was, ‘We can’t afford to do universal health care,’ ” said Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon). “Now the refrain is, ‘We can’t afford not to do it.’ ”
Pick Your Myth and as you read, be aware that every single argument has been countered.
And please, let me drink my Merlot in peace.
It’s the uninsured’s fault that they’re uninsured.
The uninsured should take more individual responsibility to get insurance. It’s not our responsibility to give them insurance.
The uninsured are lazy and free-ride off the health care system – why should I care about them?
Universal healthcare would essentially be a government handout to the uninsured.
Why should I pay for someone else’s poor health choices? I don’t want to pay for some
crackhead’s addiction.
The uninsured already get free healthcare.
Everyone who is uninsured can get Medicaid, so what’s the problem?
Healthcare is not a right.
No one should get free healthcare.
Healthcare should be treated like an individual commodity – it should only be available to those who can afford it.
UHC is fundamentally anti-American, because America is a capitalist and individualist society.
We have the best health care system in the world. Why should we endanger it by adopting universal health care?
The government can’t do anything right, and they definitely shouldn’t be involved with our healthcare system.
I don’t want government-run healthcare.
I don’t like the idea of big government, and UHC would be just that.
The free market is the best solution to the lack of insurance.
I don’t want UHC because it’s socialized medicine.
might support UHC but are concerned about the implementation
We can’t afford UHC.
People will abuse the free health care in a UHC system.
UHC would create waiting lists.
UHC would result in the rationing of care.
Jobs will be lost during the transition from our current system to UHC.
UHC will never work because people don’t want higher taxes.
UHC is not a good idea because we would have to pay for the health care for immigrants.
UHC will restrict choice.
The quality of care will suffer under UHC.
Research will slow down under a UHC system.
Technology will decrease under UHC.
Doctors will never buy into UHC because the government will interfere with their
clinical autonomy
Doctors will never buy into UHC because it will decrease their salaries.
Doctors will never support UHC because they benefit too much from the current system.
<crossposted from Smashed Frog>
[...] Re: Medical Myths – Today, 05:39 AM Universal Health Care Myths 101 Posted on January 5, 2008 by sunny66 Universal Health Care Myths 101 The Crone Speaks [...]
[...] start our little tour with Sunny66 on The Crone Speaks, who wrote Universal Health Care Myths 101. Remember, I am a nut who thinks true Universal Health Care could actually stimulate the economy, [...]
healthcare was not, is not and never will be free. someone has to pay the drs., hospitals, nurses, light bill etc.etc.. as milton friedman said, there is no free lunch. nothing the govt does is more efficient or productive as the private sector. and govt projected costs are always under estimated. if govt is the only insurance company-thats called a monopoly where i went to school. and when you have an unregulated monopoly, which is basically what the govt is-you will have rationing and waiting lines-gauranteed. the whole problem with healthcare is 3rd party payments. take that away and you have individual people making the payments-just like everything else in this world. health insurance is the only kind that people expect it to pay everything-hence the high cost. we have auto insurance for catastrophic occurances-but we pay out of pocket for tune ups and new tires. we could have auto insurance pay for everything-but it would cost 2-3 times more. home owners insurance does’nt pay for cutting the grass or painting the shutters. so we’ll go to a universal system-and have rationing and waiting lines just like canada and the other countries that have it. and thats socialism-everyone suffers for the problems of the few. no one speaks of medical savings accounts-because it’s too much like capitalism-and we know that won’t work. NOT. we learn nothing.
“…so we’ll go to a universal system-and have rationing and waiting lines just like canada and the other countries that have it. and thats socialism…”
I’m not certain you “picked your myth”, so let me help you out.
I don’t want UHC because it’s socialized medicine.–
• Universal healthcare itself is not socialized medicine, which refers to medicine that is both financed and delivered by the government. In other words, the government pays for and owns the healthcare system. That is the case for so-called “national health services” such as the healthcare systems of the U.K. and Spain, but it is not the case for other health care systems in Japan, Canada, and the rest of Europe. Single-payer systems such as Canada are not socialized medicine in the sense that the mechanisms of delivery are mostly private (i.e. physicians exist mostly in the private sector).
• In the U.S., unless we moved to a national health service, any UHC solution would definitely not be socialized medicine. Using an employer mandate, for example, would build on the
current system of predominantly private delivery. Adopting a single payer system in this country would change only the financing mechanism of our healthcare system, not the delivery mechanisms, which would stay private.
UHC would create waiting lists.
• There already is an infinite waiting list for people who are uninsured in America.
• To argue that there aren’t already waiting lists in America flies in the face of reality – it often takes months to get an appointment with specialists and even primary care physicians, especially if you are a new patient to that physician.
• Other countries that have UHC and waiting lists do not spend nearly as much as America does on health care. Waiting lists in America would be significantly less of a problem because of this spending.
• Waiting lists in other industrialized countries are almost always for elective surgeries and procedures – no country has a waiting list for emergency procedures, and virtually no country has waiting lists for primary care visits.
UHC would result in the rationing of care.
• Health care is a scarce resource, and EVERY country in the world therefore has to find some sort of mechanism for rationing. In other countries, health care is rationed according to need, whereas in this country, health care is rationed according to the ability to pay. We already ration in this country!
• In other countries, the discussion about whom to prioritize for health care, what procedures to pay for, etc. is fundamentally a public, democratic process. In this country, these discussions
are made in the board rooms of big businesses (the private health insurance companies) and are therefore fundamentally not democratic.
How did that work for you?
[...] Universal Health Care Myths 101 [...]