The Cost of Medical Socialism
From Reason:
Fight Aging!: The Cost of Medical Socialism
The nationalized health services of Europe are a more obvious socialism than what is presently happening in the US, via encroachment of schemes like Medicare and what is misleadingly called “health insurance” (more accurately viewed as highly regulated, inefficient health plans). The end result is the same: a web of regulation and socialized costs that chokes the marketplace, distorts price signals, reduces quality and rations availability. And once you choke the commercial side of medicine, you have choked investment in research; investors will depart - and have been, and are, departing - for greener fields in other industries.
I cannot imagine us going down this path, but then I never imagined that we’d be where we are today. We need to wake up our Congress(wo)men to the fact that we don’t want the Nanny state holding our hand our whole lives. For with the handholding, you get not only the perceived “protection” of the state, but the restrictions of the state. If someone is holding your hand, they control where you go. This nation was founded on the ideals that the individual would have control and responsibility over their own life. We are now at a critical juncture in this country where more people appear to be willing to give up control of their lives in order not to have to take responsibility for their lives, and I am frightened at the prospect of these people controlling the direction of our once great country. I’ve heard it told that when this country was proclaiming its independance, that it was a tiny minority of the people living here that were doing the proclaiming, that were the revolutionists. I hope we don’t reach the point where most have forgotten what it really means to free, and that another minority will have to remind them.