Interesting blog from the Cato institute clarifies the make-up of the recent Health Care Summit. According to this blog, there were only those who advocate socialized medicine. Doesn't look good for patients or doctors.
It is good to keep in mind that when the President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, needed a coronary bypass, the Russian government had to fly a team of surgeons from the United States to get the surgery done. Governments always have expenses that are more important than health care: tanks, guns, bombs, roads, bridges, and more infrastructure. After all, those who are sick are a tiny minority, and most of us believe we will never get sick. If the President of Russia couldn't get a coronary bypass under his own socialized health care system, what will happen to the average person in ours? It's a good question to ask.
I worry about many things in the future of medical care. How will they control costs? What rights will the patients have? What rights will the doctors have? How will talented individuals behave in a system that will surely control their every behavior? I do not believe the "talent" will go into medicine once it's clear that it is government run system. What will happen to research? What will happen to the pharmaceutical industry with the demand for less expensive medicines?
Socialists do not believe in the need for PROFIT in industry. They simply control it. Medical care is a special field. We need talented people to go into it. We need materials to work with, and we need many levels of research to develop the gadgets, and the drugs to help people. Once the power of government begins to take over this system, the creativity will cease. Profit feeds creativity, and government control will squash profit.
I always worry that if I get too far ahead of the crowd in my vision, that everyone will not be able to follow my logic. With this one, it is closer than you think. I don't think I am too far ahead of the thinkers. Government means FORCE, and I am afraid we are about to feel it.
James P. Weaver,M.D., FACS
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