Just as with the NHS in the UK, such a system would soon become the largest employer in the nation.
I just made a trip to the DMV this week, a simple transaction but it still consumed two hours. You have to stand in line for an hour to get a number to stand in line again... for another hour. I thought the whole time 'who in their right mind wants to turn health care over to the government and deal with life and death issues through such a monstrous bureaucracy?'.
“I thought the whole time ‘who in their right mind wants to turn health care over to the government and deal with life and death issues through such a monstrous bureaucracy?’.”
Under government healthcare most people will be seeing nurse practitioners and physician assistants. An appointment to see an MD will take weeks and a specialist months. Likely a committee of bureaucrats will have to review and approve requests for any surgery. If you are over 75 years old, the focus will be on end of life “choices”. Medical providers will be directed to encourage patients to choose euthanasia over treatment for almost any condition.
For the politically influential wealthy, and senior government officials there will be special hospitals and medical practices invisible to the public and offering treatment options not available to the public. Every socialist utopia in history provides a different standard of living for the rulers.
Healthcare for the masses will be rationed by bureaucrats. The administrators will soon be corrupted. Diagnose with a tumor either wait in line to have surgery in six months or make a $10,000 cash payment and move to the front of the line. Sitting in the emergency room for hours with excruciating pain which may be a burst appendix, wait another 10 hours and die waiting or slip $1000 to the clerk gatekeeper at the admitting desk.
Your body needs the formulary drug because it rejects the generic? Forget it. Bureaucrats know better — in public hospitals everyone gets the generic. Plus the generics are now mass produced in China where there are no independent quality inspections and the factory managers frequently substitute chemicals and freely use old expired chemicals. Not unlike the imported tainted pet foods and lead painted toys we hear about all too frequently on the news.
Ten years after the government takes over the healthcare system, the current VA system will look good.