Experience
Military medicine IS government-run, or socialized, health care. I was a registered nurse (RN) in the U.S. Air Force for 24 years. My husband also retired from the Air Force.
I could tell you many wonderful stories of the compassionate and quality care I witnessed. However, unlike in a competitive, free market-based system where bad seeds eventually get squeezed out or where you could go to another provider if you felt like yours was inadequate, these things don’t occur in a government-run vacuum. I also witnessed more than a few incompetent providers.
On one occasion, I truly believe if God had not intervened, my then-11-month-old daughter would have died at the hands of incompetency and inaction. While in the clinic, desperate for someone to help my lethargic child, I had to take matters into my own hands.
The Painful Truth of Socialized Medicine
That’s the reality in socialized medicine. Budget drives care. And if you haven’t noticed, governments are broke.
My husband and I each lived overseas in various places. The quality of and wait for health care in these locations was vastly underrated. Disease rates soar in these nations, and life expectancies are much lower than in the U.S. The people are sickly. People come to America for health care. Even in the socialized and progressive United Kingdom, held up as the ideal of socialized medicine. There is a REASON that American health care is the best in the world, and it didn’t get there because the government runs it!
When I first joined the military, “budget” wasn’t even in the vocabulary. It was the big military Reagan days – oh, remembering the good ole days brings tears to my eyes. (sniff*sniff)
But then reality entered in as government grew too large and the national debt grew. Practice managers were placed, and the budget influenced care decisions. Not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, but that “influence” is a quick, slippery slope to “dictating” health care decisions. That’s where we are today, and that’s what ObamaCare demands.
In the Act, there really is a bureaucratic panel of a few number-crunchers in DC that is in charge of balancing care and budget. Care is based on how much the person will be able to give back to society. Health care dollars will flow to the young and productive, away from the aging and disabled. Look up Complete Lives Systems to learn more. Obama’s Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein was a huge proponent of this system. They may not be called “Death Panels,” but not calling a dog a dog doesn’t mean it’s not a dog.
When will we realize? Whenever we ask the government to do or provide, it gives them the right to call the shots. That’s how it works, folks.
So, ask for government health care, but don’t expect to give much input in what you get. We can give our rights over to increase the size of civil government (socialized medicine), but the cost will be decreased personal liberty (doctor/treatment options, tax increases to cover exorbitant costs, etc.).
There are many ways to bring down cost without sacrificing patient-driven care: tort reform, insure across state lines,…
Let’s explore effective options that don’t require us to bow to the Great Government Provider god.
The Real Battle
Colonel, USAFR (Ret)