Posted on 11/11/2013 7:20:37 AM PST by IBD editorial writer
Socialism: As the U.S. fixates on ObamaCare, south of our border another "free and universal" health care system is collapsing, according to a report from the Associated Press. It's an uneasy portent. The idea of free, universal health care has always seemed like a perfect solution. At least that was the thinking behind Venezuela's constitutionally enshrined "right" to free health care since 1999, winning the late President Hugo Chavez a lot of elections and seeming to be the logic behind ObamaCare. But post-Chavez, Venezuela's health care system is a shambles. Massive shortages of basic supplies plague both public and private hospitals. Everything from drugs, syringes and needles, to respirators, incubators and ultrasound monitors, is in short supply, reports AP's Frank Bajak. Doctors are fleeing, and hospital beds are lacking too, even in crime-infested public hospitals, where thugs assault doctors in hallways and rob patients at night.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Destroying the healthcare system seems to be a GOAL of Obamacare.
Not if Boner and Cantor have anything to say about it
Maybe just maybe, odumbocare may have a good effect on the health care system by causing the insurance companies to lower their prices and be more competetive AGAINST odumbocare. Am I dreaming? Probably, but it is better than the nightmare of odumbocare being with us as the only game in town.
It’s not Socialism, its Obammunism: Crony Socialism. All the worst of crony capitalism combined with all the worst of socialism
On November 6, 2013, there was a posting tied back to AP, about “Doctors say Venezuela’s Health care in collapse”, Google it if you have not read it already. That is a case study in what the course of events would be in any country in which the RIGHT to “free” health care is written into law. It is not a medical problem in Venezuela, it is an economic problem, in a nation with vast quantities of a highly valuable natural resource (petroleum) subject to the whims of a ruling minority that wants to make things “equal”.
It is saying something that when Hugo Chavez needed medical attention, he went to Cuba for treatment. And he still died.
Obamacare is provided by insurance companies.
The government defines a set of criteria that the company must adhere to.
The govt provides subsidies (aka your and my tax money) to make the rates lower for low income people.
But the subscribers are contracting with an insurance company not the govt.
I hate to say it - but they probably need to suffer much more.
At list it will wring the false promises of socialism out of their collective psyche for a couple of generations
The only problem is they have to fund the millions of poor and sick on Obamacare,how can they do that and lower the cost for families and everyone else?
Paul Ryan had the best idea,give the 30 million uninsured 5k to get a basic Policy and save trillions,repeal Obamacare
It wasn’t crumbling till ObamaCare now it’s a fiasco and a Fabrication of the most vicious lies perpetrated on the American people since Peter Minuit bought Manhattan from the Native Americans except The new American people {and make no mistake this country is new comparatively speaking}.
Some of us have been sold a bill of goods that isn’t worth the 60 guilders or the thousands of pages of paper it’s written on
yet like the Indians it’s a bright and shiny promise of change and that’s what most are going to end up with 24 dollars worth of change.
But this change has fallen down the sewer grate and you can’t reach it no matter how hard you try and look here comes the ice cream truck to well no matter soon you won’t be able to get ice cream in Manhattan anyway just another service of the short drink no salt crowd sorry but you can’t eat that no matter how good it is for your well being let alone your ego
Ahhh never mind your not listening anyway are you ?
Yep didn’t think so !
Lawyers and ambulance chasers are a tiny percentage of the cost of health care and one that has been declining for years. That isn’t the problem.
The problem is almost entirely cost hiding and shifting. People don’t know what they’re paying for anything and in many cases, the providers don’t even know what they’re charging. The whole system is an outrageous fraud in which our government (both political parties), insurance companies, and to a lesser extent, medical providers, have been allowed to run roughshod over the American people. It would be nice if we could stop it, but I don’t have high hopes.
Yep, just like to the old Soviet Union. Medical care is free. Only there isn’t any. Except for the Politburo and their elite pets. You know, just like the U.S. Politburo and THEIR elite pets. For the peasants? Not so much.
Ominous stat.
The problem with our healthcare system IS THE GOVERNMENT meddling and over regulating.
They spent over $600 billion (and rising) for a website that still doesn’t work.
That answers the initial question.
==
When people manage to get on the website and find out that they are being covered for childrens’ dentistry [even if they have no children] and maternity [for males] and similar things, they will be balking.
So far, Obama has promised to up the amount people can get to help pay for Obamacare. [Who is providing that money?]
Ludwig von Mises, the great Austrian economist, said that the free market wins in competition with centrally planned systems, because centrally directed systems don't have price discovery. Therefore, they suffer from inefficiency and misallocation.
Look at the medical system, now, and even a generation ago well before Obamacare. No one knows what anything costs! As you say, the cost hiding and cost shifting are so great, that the whole medical system has no price signalling in it. It's as if it was centrally planned by a zombie.
That would cost $150 billion a year. With about 100 million taxpayers currently, each would have to be taxed an additional $1,500 to pay for this charity health care.
Is that cheaper than what Obamacare is already costing us? I don't know. But I do know I want a system not based on handouts, but based on people being motivated to pay into their own insurance coverage.
Bottom line, people need to be punished if they never choose to carry insurance and the incur health care costs. If you don't have car insurance and you get in an accident, what happens? Same with flood insurance, renters insurance, life insurance, fire insurance, etc. Why should we bailing people out on their health costs? Conservatives are supposed to be against bail-outs for people who make bad bets.
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