In a previous post1 I mentioned my Spanish friend Blanca and her bout with infertility treatment, breast cancer, and reconstruction. I am so happy that she didn’t have to pay anything (aside from taxes). While universal healthcare works so well for some, we have to look at the big picture. We should not further burden our country with universal healthcare without looking at a few models. Take England and Massachusetts for example.
I recently learned about the UK’s National Health Service system through this book.2 The clever title and cover, along with a summary that had me laughing audibly in the bookstore, made the purchase unavoidable, especially with all of the Obama hype.
As a Brit, Delingpole tells his personal experiences of terribly long wait times while in excruciating pain, terrible service, and a lower standard of care (increased MRSA, deaths). Working in healthcare I see patients everyday who put off necessary treatment due to insurance and finances. Although I wish more people could afford health care, universal government-run health care is not the answer.
Delingpole provided a very insightful perspective into government-run healthcare system:
- 95 billion pounds (£) are spent each year for their NHS (more than defense or education).
- NHS is the largest world employer after the Chinese army and Indian State Railway.
- Headline: [Foreign] visitor seeks heart transplant at British taxpayer’s expense That is a $100,000 procedure. Annual estimate of “health tourism” at 50-200£ million pounds.
- It is estimated that 15% of yearly cancer or stroke fatalities in Britain would survive if treated in any other European country.
- NHS responsible for 40,000 patient deaths per year.
- 55% of senior doctors pay for private medical insurance, avoiding exposure to NHS treatment.
Delingpole sums up Britain’s healthcare with this statement: “The service so costly it eats up the biggest part of your tax dollar, but so terrible that even in your hour of greatest need, you’d rather walk barefoot across hot coals then ever have to use it.”
Clearly there are glaring defects in the NHS of the UK. Our population is five times the population in the UK. If it didn’t work over there…maybe Massachusetts has done better. Apparently not.
Massachusetts in Suit Over Cost of Universal Care
The New York Times reports on Boston Medical Center, facing a $38 million deficit this year, its first loss in five years, and projecting a $100 million loss next year. The cause: Universal Healthcare.
“The central charge in the suit is that the state has siphoned money away from Boston Medical to help pay the considerable cost of insuring all but a small percentage of residents. Three years after the law’s passage, Massachusetts has the country’s lowest percentage of uninsured residents: 2.6 percent, compared with a national average of 15 percent. “The magnitude of the loss here can’t be solved on the program-cutting or expense-cutting side,” Mr. Traylor said. Professor Parmet said the hospital’s dissatisfaction with the new law should be a warning to Congress that “insurance alone doesn’t solve the problems” of the health care system. In fact, she said, it might exacerbate the financial problems of safety-net hospitals in the short term.”3
It sounds like it is not working in Massachusets either. What exactly are we looking at? Last year Obama estimated universal healthcare "will cost between $50-$65 billion a year when fully phased in."4 Delingpole assures it will cost at least 10 times that. Recently, we have seen cost estimates of $1.5 trillion over ten years.5
It is estimated that the “health care bill would increase the federal deficit by $239 billion over the next 10 years.”6
“Coming to America to feast on this cornucopia of freebies is the world. One million to 2 million immigrants, legal and illegal, arrive every year. They come with fewer skills and less education than Americans, and consume more tax dollars than they contribute by three to one.”7
We’d like to say that we are the most innovative nation in the world, that we can make a government run healthcare system work, that we can provide insurance for all Americans. We invented the television after all. The internet, the zipper, the microwave, even radiocarbon dating. However, there is one thing in common with all of the innovative inventions and success stories: free market capitalism.
Charge has been given to the government to run quite a few things including education and legislation, of course. We have seen what government run education has given us (which I don’t really blame the government except that they’ve given into a minority group of lefties who ruined for the rest of us. That will be a different topic.) Legislation? How about passing a 1071 page $790 Billion bill without reading it. Sure, I bet the government is up to the task of creating and managing a universal health care plan. Right….
1. http://theworldaccordingtojohnp.blogspot.com/2009/07/ever-want-to-punch-someone-in-face.html
2. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1596985887/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=2637583131&ref=pd_sl_63pinvwdg_e
3. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/us/16hospital.html?_r=3
4. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/02/21/healthcare/
5. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25104.html#ixzz0LkytuL9m
6. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/18/universal-health-care-cost-trillion/
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