Socialized Medicine
With the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc, and the supposed calm (or apathy towards
events) in the third world, the modern Republican has very few scapegoats to attack.
Many rightists have shifted their interests towards fighting homosexuality and welfare, but
soon they will be fighting a new anti-proletariat campaign. Politicians as hapless and
moderate as Jesse ‘the Body’ Ventura (I apologize for jumping on the Ventura
mocking-bandwagon) and as vicious and reactionary as Pat Buchanan have spoken out
against one new target: Socialized Medicine. The Clinton administration has vaguely
touched on the prospect of socialized medicine, through their nationalized health care
plans, but no real direct push has been made towards this grand way to even out both the
cogs in our health care system, and to fight economic discrimination which directly causes
the deaths of hundreds of thousands every year. Various nations, including Canada,
Sweden, Israel and the United Kingdom have all granted their citizens government
monitored and paid health care. Although the levels of socialized medicine vary from
national health insurance to real socialized systems (the differences between national
health insurance and socialized medicine are the levels of government control, and private
companies’ economic freedom) they are all vastly superior to the United State’s health
care.
In order to insure the well being of our citizens, and to fight economic
discrimination (which is the largest scale discrimination in the world today) the United
States must take steps towards socialized medicine. However critics of the system, mostly
rich men with full health coverage, condemn the idea. They claim itís inefficient,
expensive and most of all, slow. In order to prove them wrong, we must compare our
system to that of Canada’s, a country which is culturally quite like ours, but has socialized
medicine.
Simply looking at the facts makes the strongest argument for a socialized system
like Canadaís. Canadian and American cultures are quite similar. We eat roughly the
same amount of red meat, drink roughly the same amount of alcohol, and exercise roughly
as much, but for some reason, Canadaís rate of heart disease is 20% lower than Americas1.
This is largely because of Canadaís more accessible health system. Canadaís infant
mortality rate is 25% lower, as a result of their ‘dust-to-dust’ policy. Canada’s average
life span is 77.1 years, a whopping two years longer then America’s. Canada’s health care
system obviously draws better results than Americas.
However, the criticís main problem isn’t with the end result. One of the strongest
arguments against socialized health care is that it is believed to be more expensive. Critics
fear that this cost will result in a raise of taxes, but this fear is unfounded. Now, before
you roar ‘No new Taxes’, listen to this: our system spends 573 more dollars per person
than Canada’s. This may not sound like much, but it this means that we pay
$275,000,000,000 more on health care than we need to. Where does this money go?
Letís just put it this way, in the last decade, American doctors increased their cut by 40%,
whereas Canada’s doctors only gained another 10%. That’s right, more money returns to
the bourgeois, thus continuing the vicious cycle of American capitalism. If appropriating
the money for socialized health care somehow still seems to be a problem, we do spend
$258,000,000,000 on defense, much of which can be redirected towards keeping our
people alive in a much more effective manor. The argument that socialized health care is
too expensive is a weak one.
Not only does socialized medicine help to defeat economic discrimination, but it is
also far better organized than American systems. In Canada citizens only spend $18 a year
on ‘Administrative’ costs, whereas in America we spend 95$ a year, resulting in a total of
$20,000,000,000 more than we would spend with a Canadian-style system. As a result of
being much more centralized, Canadian emergency rooms can have a patient’s medical
history, complete with life saving lists of allergies, in a third of the time it takes to get a
patient’s history in America. Because of this, America has 50% more deaths from latex
glove allergies than Canada does.
The one accurate critique of the Canadian system is that it’s slow. It takes longer
to get treatment in Canada then it does in America, as the reports say. However, these
reports are based on Americans with 100% coverage. However, in reality, the majority of
Americans have less than 75% coverage. So it is true, if you’re a member of the 17% of
America which has full coverage, it’s faster to receive coverage in America. However for
most, Canadaís system is faster, not to mention more equal and efficient.
The main goal of socialized health care is not to be cheaper or more efficient; the
point of socialized medicine is to allow equal coverage for all Americans. Many die each
year because they are discriminated against by hospitals and Insurance agencies. Those of
low or moderate income are the largest group targeted, but many are discriminated against
as a result of their race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or political beliefs. By cutting
capitalist corporate health insurance agencies out of the equation, these discriminations
will be largely defeated. Many criticize our government for being lazy, stupid, racist,
sexist, and anti-proletariat, but it is far more just than the corporations who run our Health
Care today. By giving the government control of our health care, we fight these
discriminations, and also allow ourselves a more efficient, cheaper system.
return to Antisocialzine Anti-Corporation
