Socialized Healthcare: ideas have consequences

 

You know the dread that comes over you when you have to visit the DMV? Think: Government-run health care waiting room. That is what it is like.

 

For those who still have the idea that socialized medicine (ObamaCare) is a panacea, here’s another personal story…

 

My husband tore his meniscus in his knee – couldn’t extend it at all. He was given crutches, though he couldn’t walk upright, and still had to commute an hour to work. The clinic didn’t want to pay for an MRI, so they put him in physical therapy and waited for time to pass. Time did pass. Eventually, the meniscus tore through, and he needed arthroscopic surgery to remove it. [Once they remove a meniscus, a total knee replacement is necessary down the road.] His surgeon told him that if they had done the MRI, they could have had the diagnostics necessary to repair the meniscus and prevent a knee replacement. But that wasn’t in their tunnel-visioned budget for that fiscal year. Additionally the rules were so rigid and centralized (not determined at the local level), there was no room for common sense to enter in.

 

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