Starving Under Socialized Health Care

Pajamas Media ^ | Sept. 10 | Mike NcNally

[AJKauf]

It’s not been a good few weeks for Britain’s National Health Service since it was dragged into the debate over plans to reform the U.S. health care system. After U.S. opponents of ObamaCare and domestic critics — such as MEP Daniel Hannan — highlighted problems with the NHS (some very real, others exaggerated) to warn against the dangers of socialized medicine, defenders of our state-run system rallied to its defense, dismissing the concerns of U.S. conservatives as scaremongering.

One of the biggest areas of concern for those who oppose increasing government control over health care in the U.S. is the issue of end-of-life care, a debate that’s generally framed in terms of “pulling the plug on grandma” and “death panels.” Since I wrote the piece linked above, several stories have emerged in the British press suggesting that, despite all the protestations to the contrary, under socialized health care the lives of thousands of elderly and terminally-ill patients are ended prematurely through a combination of neglect, incompetence, and misjudgments by doctors.

First up was a report by a body representing NHS patients, which claimed that hundreds of thousands of patients have received “neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel” treatment. This included patients receiving inadequate food and drink and having operations repeatedly canceled and symptoms misdiagnosed. In many cases the failings contributed directly to a patient’s death....

[TChris]

The biggest issue with socialized medicine, as with any form of economic collectivism, is that of incentives.

When you alter the economic incentives of a profession, you alter the people who will choose that profession. A bright, motivated college student, considering her options for a career, will certainly take into consideration how well each option will pay. After all, that's the primary purpose for a career: to receive an income.

When an industry is socialized and managed by the government, the economic incentives are bureaucracy-driven instead of customer-driven. Professionals will be paid less while the red tape they must deal with will be greater.

The bottom line: Socialized health care leads to lower quality health care workers AS A GROUP. There will be exceptions, of course, but the average WILL drop.

[the long march]

No incentives are NOT the biggest issue. The biggest issue is the governments ability to CONTROL your life from cradle to grave. If you are too young they will not spend a dime on you. If you are too old they will not spend a dime on you.

The medical profession has never really been about the money ( not matter what you may think). Those who care for patients have to have a heart and calling for it else wise they burn out and quit. Fact is governments cannot mandate that kind of dedication or caring.

The disinsentive if you must i that the govrnment does not allow a doctor to practise best care for the patient, same is true for nurses. When government decides it is no longer health care it is who gets to live another day?

[doc11355]

No incentives are NOT the biggest issue. The biggest issue is the governments ability to CONTROL your life from cradle to grave.

Equally important from the patients' viewpoint is ACCOUNTABILITY, which is completely lacking in a government-run system.

Without direct accountability to the patient as seen in the current, private, market-driven system, you wind up with the medical equivalent of the DMV or Post Office, the VA healthcare system.

[the long march]

Yup. And without substantial tort reform and an opening up of insurance companies ability to sell across state lines NOTHING will ever improve