Socialist Health Care, part 2

By Zach Foster
Continued from Part 1

Rather than take socialistic measures, the federal government (if its high-ranking self-appointed messiahs felt they truly needed to get involved) should have taken steps to insure greater competition and quality control in the industry.  This could have been done through monetary incentives, such as handsome tax breaks for those insurance companies who mirror the government’s agenda for health insurance (such as implementing lower prices, raising or abolishing coverage ceilings, taking concrete effective steps to eliminating the “doughnut hole”).  This not only would have done much more to improve the quality of health insurance for consumers, but it also would have encouraged capitalism and the creation of wealth and jobs.  Respected economist Frank Chodorov, in his essay About Socialism and Socialists, completely refutes the socialist (and Marxist) notion that capitalism reaps nothing but longer working lower wages, and worse living conditions: “Capitalism has raised wages, not lowered them, as Marx predicted. So much so, that the worker with a washing machine and an automobile has lost every vestige of ‘working class consciousness.’ He even plays golf.”

Many socialists and left-leaning academic pseudo-intellectuals cite the “model” socialist health care in Canada and even communist Cuba.  The fact of the matter is that the socialist health care policy in Canada continues to bankrupt the nation and the quality of health care deteriorates. After all, doctors and other vital health care workers—human beings just like the rest of us—are not making money the way they did under capitalism and they lose the incentive to utilize all those years of school and all those hours of training.  In regard to Cuba being a model of socialist health care, the very idea is nothing but a myth.  Dr. Yuri Maltsev is a professor of economics at Carthage College and a Senior Fellow at the world-renowned Mises Institute of Economics.  Dr. Maltsev was the second highest ranking economist in the Soviet Union and was an advisor to Gorbachev, before defecting to the United States.  Having grown up in complete communism (be reminded that Marxists love to say that socialism and communism are the same thing), Dr. Maltsev knows the horrid inefficiency.  He also used to take his students on week-long field trips to Cuba where they consistently saw the economically damaging effects of socialism on the entire Cuban society, especially health care.  Health care is virtually nonexistent in Cuba, and the “model health care” that ignorant utopian American pseudo-intellectuals cite is simply an illusion for Castro’s propaganda.  The people who get quality health care in Cuba are the Communist Party cadres and visiting westerners whose currency holds much weight in the decrepit society.

Let it also be known that the poor receive better health care under capitalism.  Congressman Ron Paul has been a medical doctor for decades.  He writes: “As a medical doctor, I've seen first-hand how bureaucratic red tape interferes with the doctor-patient relationship and drives costs higher…  We should remember that HMOs did not arise because of free-market demand, but rather because of government mandates…  America had the finest doctors and hospitals, patients enjoyed high-quality, affordable medical care, and thousands of private charities provided health services for the poor. Doctors focused on treating patients, without the red tape and threat of lawsuits that plague the profession today. Most Americans paid cash for basic services, and had insurance only for major illnesses and accidents. This meant both doctors and patients had an incentive to keep costs down…”

Let the Congress take these things into consideration.  Let both capitalists and socialists take the proper steps to fix the health insurance industry!