My fellow blogger Todd Epp from SD Watch sends this feedback on my last post regarding nationalized health care:
Bob:
We are eventually going to see some form of national health care, probably under the coming Obama, Clinton, Edwards, or Richardson Administration (depends upon which one of these fine candidates wins).
I think that national health care will invigorate capitalism not harm it. If every person is covered, either by a national plan or private insurance, then we will be a healthier nation. There will be cost savings because people won't wait to go to the doctor or the E.R. until they are in a very bad way, when it is most expensive to treat them.
Workers will be more willing to change jobs, no longer afraid to lose health coverage. Entrepreneurs will have one obstacle removed from leaving their jobs and creating a new business. They will have health care, regardless if they fail.
I think the collective relief national health care will evoke will provide economic and creative impetus that will do wonders for not just the working people of our nation, but those who will take a chance to start businesses that will create more jobs.
Best regards,
Todd Epp
Senior Health Care Editor
S.D. Watch
http://thunewatch.squarespace.com
Fortunately we won't have to find out what happens under one of those Democrat administrations in '08 (that is, unless the Republicans are stupid enough to nominate McCain or Giuliani), but as spineless as most Republicans are these days, we might not need one to get nationalized health care.
Todd's scenario on a NHS might work in a perfect world (the one socialists want), but then socialist ideals always work well in their minds, but never do in the real world.
The reason it won't work is because of the very thing Todd said: "...people won't wait to go to the doctor or the E.R. until they are in a very bad way..." No, they'll go anytime they feel the slightest sniffle or headache, just like they do in countries that have a NHS (England, Canada, etc). That will make costs go into orbit, not to mention the time you have to wait for treatment.
These statements I make aren't just based on a guess about human nature and how socialism "might work." There are all the examples we need in the two countries I mentioned above. Statistics show it, and I've seen it first hand. Bloated, bureaucratic systems that suck money light a black hole and inefficiencies that frustrate people and leave some to die waiting for treatment.
Portability for health insurance would be a good thing, but I'm not sure how you'd bring it off in the real world...again, without even more government intervention than we already have.
But thanks for the feedback, Todd. You're one of the most rational Leftists I know.
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