We knew the arguments against socialized medicine were running low when investors business daily claimed that people such as Stephen Hawking would suffer if forced into a system of socialized medicine. This despite the fact that Stephen Hawking, a resident of Cambridge, England has been treated for many years in the British NHS and was very recently admitted to a hospital practicing socialized medicine.
So why the fear? Well, other than post-cold war views towards anything that comes close to liberalism there are many arguments against socialized systems for anything:
- You lose competition – With only one health care provider, there would be no innovation. This ofcourse is untrue. Drug companies and health tech companies would still need to compete to sell to whoever is buying, regardless of whether its the goverment or individuals.
- Loss of Choice – ” I don’t want my government choosing what treatments I can and cant have because they want to ration healthcare.” Guess what, your HMO’s already do this although not only do they need to ration out all there payments to all of their customers but they also need to pass over some to the shareholders.
Finally its worthing pointing out that a healthcare system provided by goverment does not rule out private care. In the UK there are both, if the NHS will not cover your treatment you can still get private health care insurance in addition (considerably cheaper than in the USA) therefore providing the choice that you may otherwise have lost out on.
A capitalist economy is without doubt the best economy but there are somethings that need to be run by the goverment. The thought of privatizing something like the armed forces is ridiculous. Yet we still have private contractors providing to and innovating for the US forces. Healthcare should be on the same playing field. Whats the point in defending your citizens if you not gonna look after them inside your country.
