(1) For years I have been seeing “human interest” stories of people from all over the world coming to the USA, legally or otherwise, to get medical treatment for all sorts of problems. We already know that illegal aliens use the emergency room as the source of much of their free medical care, including the birth of their anchor babies. If we make health care “free” everybody in the world with cancer, etc., will make a beeline for the USA. And we will be “too compassionate” to tell them to get lost. There is truly no upper limit on how much socialized medicine could cost in the USA.
(2) The system in Japan may work because it only treats Japanese people, who tend to take pretty good care of themselves and who are smart enough to read and understand the directions on the medications that they are given. Recent studies have shown that a significant portion of America’s underclass is UNABLE to read, understand, and follow the directions for their medications.
(3) German doctors often fly to England for the weekend to make extra money by working shifts in English hospitals because they are underpaid in Germany. Which means that they are exhausted whichever country they are working in.
(4) Today’s Telegraph or BBC online (can’t remember) had an article stating that most of this year’s crop of graduating doctors in Britain do NOT have jobs lined up even though the country desperately needs additional doctors. Apparently, the older doctors who have their own practices are afraid to hire any additional help because the government is opening new “polyclinics” and it is not known how much “business” the polyclinics will take away from the established medical practices. In Britain, the government is always setting “targets” for the health service to meet that lead to adverse outcomes. Example: The government told the hospitals that they had to treat everyone coming into the emergency room within a certain amount of time. Result: The hospitals ONLY unload ambulances when they are certain that they will be able to provide treatment immediately. In some cases, the ambulances are lined up outside the hospital for hours, unable to leave and provide ambulance service for others because they can’t unload the patient they already have. If you need an ambulance, there aren’t any available, they are all parked in front of an emergency room somewhere.
(5) Canada’s system only works because they have the hospitals of the Northern USA to provide neurosurgery and high-risk obstetrical care when their own overburdened system blows a gasket, and because wealthier Canadians often purchase U.S. medical services out of their own pockets. If the USA adopts socialized medicine, what country will handle OUR shortages of care? Mexico?
(6) I have had retired relatives on Medicare who had oodles of leisure time, and made all sorts of medical appointments for VERY minor medical problems. If you have “high” co-pays, people are going to complain that the poor are shut out of the system. If you have “low” co-pays, or no co-pay at all, I guarantee you that many of the elderly people in my neighborhood will visit at least one or two doctors each and every week. Lonely people LOVE to go to the doctor, and if it is free, they will abuse the system. Offer them free ambulance rides, and emergency room visits, and they will take lots of free ambulance rides and go to the emergency room on a regular basis. Showing up in the emergency room is often a way for them to get a visit from their children and grandchildren and to be the center of attention.
(7) I have no medical insurance myself, and I have had some serious problems. I think that the government should do something about the fact that the pharmaceutical companies seem to sell affordable drugs everywhere in the world except the USA, but having the government provide “free” medical benefits in our country, with its open borders, will be nothing short of a disaster.
