[Glenn]

but socialized health care or socialized medicines whether by government decree or public coercion is a step toward the dark ages

Didn't it work exactly that way for Polio and smallpox? I thought that was a rather enlightened approach to stem human suffering in the history of the world.

[Congressman Billybob]

I was a child when Dr. Salk solved the problem of a vaccine for polio. I remember getting the shots as a teenager. Later, I served on the Board of the Leukemia Society of America. They sponsored basic research in that disease the same way the March of Dimes did for polio.

The money was raised by private, voluntary donations. Then, a knowledgeable Board, guided by the advice of doctors experienced in the field, that money was spent on the most promising research proposals of the hundreds that were presented for consideration. (Most leukemia patients are now "cured" as opposed to most dying quickly of their disease, when I first went on that Board.)

This was NOT "socialized medicine." It was intelligent, capable private charity, for which America is renowned.

John / Billybob

[HopefulPatriot]

I will leave it to you to review the the history of the polio and small pox vaccines. I do not know the details or the specifics, but the answer is unequivocally "NO" if you think forcing drug companies to wave their patents or be coerced into providing the medicines at discount is a model for future health care. The Swine flu fiasco was only the first of what could be many such events.

Government is the least efficient, the least effective, and the worst possible way to do anything. Capitalism works; socialism fails every time it is tried and it will always fail every time it is tried because the incentives are backwards.

I have seen military medicine, VA medicine, and British Medicine up close. Do you think it was an accident that Fedex and UPS are not part of the post office?