My Socialized Medicine Experience (Part 2)

This is the second part of a continuing series of posts about my experience with government and healthcare.

My last post sketched out some of the problems with individuals being able to procure health insurance in the U.S., primarily because of government interference in the marketplace.  The government has enacted many laws and regulations over the years that force individuals into “groups” for coverage.  This has destroyed the traditional doctor-patient relationship.

Everyone agrees there are problems with the current system, but incredibly, some are calling for even more government involvement as a solution.  How would the United States Government run healthcare?  Look to the V.A. Hospitals, and ask yourself if that is what you want for all Americans.  Look at the quality of care in the military system of healthcare, and ask yourself if that is what you want for your family.  If we go completely socialist on healthcare, it will be all of that, and worse.

I spent four years on active duty in the U.S. Army.  I personally witnessed rationing of healthcare by government officials, with V.I.P.’s and the politically connected receiving special treatment.  I saw long lines for the dispensing of medications, with patients sometimes waiting hours for something they could take for their persistent cough.

I saw marriages destroyed by unexpected pregnancies, when botched vasectomies were performed at the military hospital.  I saw doctors get transferred to other installations, rather than being fired, because of a corrupt, and ineffective system of government, that does not hold individuals accountable.

I saw a friend of mine almost die due to horrendous malpractice committed by so-called “care” administered by a U.S. Government run hospital.  My friend went down on the ground in convulsions, while we were in the field on a training exercise.  When we got back to the rear a couple of weeks later, we were shocked to find our buddy had been “lost” at the hospital.  The incompetent staff lost his chart, and no one had been checking on him for days as he lay unconscious in a bed at the hospital.

When he finally regained consciousness, they began a course of treatment.  This lack of care was enormously bad, even by the standards of the badly run government hospital.  Despite that, no one received any adverse disciplinary action, and my buddy ended up having to sue the government to get them to pay for his healthcare needs after they kicked him out of the service on a medical discharge.

As an officer, I attended meetings where resource allocations were made for healthcare on our installation.  The number of clinics needed for the population (both military and civilian were discussed).  Doctors and nurses were rationed to the clinics.  Some units were considered high priority, and others less so.  Some received more resources accordingly.  Thus, some of the blessed would have shorter wait times for care than others.  This is the kind of political policy making decisions we can expect if we institute government run healthcare on the American people.

I don’t know about you, but I do not trust my Congressman and Senators with that kind of decision making for me and my family.  Even our Congressional representatives may be powerless to intervene if the majority of Congress devotes more resources to say, the East Coast States, than those of us that live out West.  Are you prepared to have some guy in a cube, in Washington D.C., determine if we can have a hospital in Sunnyside?  Or if we will have doctors on staff there?  The power brokers will make these kinds of decisions, and despite protests from the community that we need them here, there will be no local decision-making involved.

Do you really want a fully socialist, centrally run, healthcare system?

I vote for a market based system, where doctors and patients make the decisions.  I also vote for a system of INDIVIDUAL insurance in the healthcare market.

To be continued…