The Dread Specter of Socialized Medicine
Posted on
Thursday, November 09, 2006
by Gary A. Ballard
Now that the Democrats have taken back both houses of Congress (or as good as with the Webb/Allen fight still not ultimately decided), I'm hoping that the Democratic platform will include at least a cursory stab at health care issues. My wildest dream is that they will somehow magically produce a "universal health care" plan that is workable and passable. Of course, the moment such a plan is announced, the same grousing politicians who have fought health care legislation for almost two decades will begin the shrill whining alarm bells about the dangers of socialized medicine.
The word socialized in the mouth of these politicians has come to mean something completely different from what it should, something similar to the word liberal. To this bunch of corrupt, corporate-pandering, lobbyist-coddled lazabouts, it is meant to evoke images of the great Soviet Communist Empire. Combined with medicine, the words are supposed to conjure images of incompetent doctors with as much passion about saving lives as an assembly line factory worker has about riveting sheet metal, of long lines at free clinics with the unwashed masses of lazy mendicants and welfare recipients, and of stacks of paperwork in triplicate as a requirement to get an aspirin. You are supposed to think that giving in to socialized medicine in this country would tip us over some mythical line in the sand that would eventually destroy our freedom, where every step on the street would be dogged by soldiers asking for your papers. I only wish I was exaggerating, but that truly is the images these Cold War relics have skillfully attached to the word socialized.
But there is nothing in the idea of socialized medicine that makes any of those outcomes a certainty, provided those crafting such legislation deassify their heads long enough to think beyond what pork barrel corporate handout they want to give to the drug and insurance industries next. Government programs don't have to be waste-ridden shitpiles of inefficient, heartless automatons filling out paperwork instead of helping people unless there is no commitment from the top down for the program to be a success.
Do you want to know my image of socialized medicine, what I think of when those words are presented? I think of a hard-working mother of three making minimum wage being able to take her kids to the doctor when they get the sniffles. Instead of choosing between food or antibiotics, she gets both in a timely fashion. I see that working mother missing only three days of work when she gets a cold of her own, instead of the five days she might normally miss. I see the middle-aged steel worker getting regular checkups instead of waiting until his arteries harden and he has his first heart attack at the age of 39. I see the struggling middle class office worker finding cancer a year before the lump forms on his testicles, and getting treated for it without going bankrupt in the process. I see expectant low income mothers getting prenatal care for their babies, leading to higher birth rates and healthier babies.
And I see people who already have the money to afford good healthcare getting the same level of treatment that the lower income people do, and getting better care because they can afford even more coverage. And I see people with more money than they can ever spend actually paying another .01% of their goddamn fortune to provide this for everyone.
See, that's the thing about social programs. They aren't there to take money from people who don't have money to give. They are there to provide vital services to people who might not otherwise be able to avail themselves of those services. I'm not talking about Bentleys in every garage; I'm talking about basic human needs being met, needs like antibiotics to fight off colds and cancer treatments to survive to see your kids graduate college. Those are things the American Dream is SUPPOSED to provide, and it isn't doing it. The American Dream doesn't exist to provide millionares with another tax break; it exists to provide opportunities to all men and women regardless of class, race, religion or any other criteria.
As for business, I can't imagine any industry besides the insurance and pharmaceutical industries thinking this is a bad idea. In the scenarios I mentioned above, the minimum wage mother has two less days of missing work, which is two more days of productivity she might otherwise not have provided. The steel worker with the heart attack doesn't miss months of work recuperating. The office worker with cancer doesn't die from undetected terminal cancer, and so gives the office years more of service. These things are all good for business. The most important thing to remember about business is that while executives may provide the ideas, those ideas are worthless without the execution by the workers. Business relationships are social contracts with responsibilities on both sides of the coin.
But I'm sure opponents of socialized medicine will just claim it another handout to the lazy frauds that are killing the welfare system, get in their Bentleys and drive to their doctor, safe in the knowledge they've kept their campaign contributor's fortunes safe. I know better.
The word socialized in the mouth of these politicians has come to mean something completely different from what it should, something similar to the word liberal. To this bunch of corrupt, corporate-pandering, lobbyist-coddled lazabouts, it is meant to evoke images of the great Soviet Communist Empire. Combined with medicine, the words are supposed to conjure images of incompetent doctors with as much passion about saving lives as an assembly line factory worker has about riveting sheet metal, of long lines at free clinics with the unwashed masses of lazy mendicants and welfare recipients, and of stacks of paperwork in triplicate as a requirement to get an aspirin. You are supposed to think that giving in to socialized medicine in this country would tip us over some mythical line in the sand that would eventually destroy our freedom, where every step on the street would be dogged by soldiers asking for your papers. I only wish I was exaggerating, but that truly is the images these Cold War relics have skillfully attached to the word socialized.
But there is nothing in the idea of socialized medicine that makes any of those outcomes a certainty, provided those crafting such legislation deassify their heads long enough to think beyond what pork barrel corporate handout they want to give to the drug and insurance industries next. Government programs don't have to be waste-ridden shitpiles of inefficient, heartless automatons filling out paperwork instead of helping people unless there is no commitment from the top down for the program to be a success.
Do you want to know my image of socialized medicine, what I think of when those words are presented? I think of a hard-working mother of three making minimum wage being able to take her kids to the doctor when they get the sniffles. Instead of choosing between food or antibiotics, she gets both in a timely fashion. I see that working mother missing only three days of work when she gets a cold of her own, instead of the five days she might normally miss. I see the middle-aged steel worker getting regular checkups instead of waiting until his arteries harden and he has his first heart attack at the age of 39. I see the struggling middle class office worker finding cancer a year before the lump forms on his testicles, and getting treated for it without going bankrupt in the process. I see expectant low income mothers getting prenatal care for their babies, leading to higher birth rates and healthier babies.
And I see people who already have the money to afford good healthcare getting the same level of treatment that the lower income people do, and getting better care because they can afford even more coverage. And I see people with more money than they can ever spend actually paying another .01% of their goddamn fortune to provide this for everyone.
See, that's the thing about social programs. They aren't there to take money from people who don't have money to give. They are there to provide vital services to people who might not otherwise be able to avail themselves of those services. I'm not talking about Bentleys in every garage; I'm talking about basic human needs being met, needs like antibiotics to fight off colds and cancer treatments to survive to see your kids graduate college. Those are things the American Dream is SUPPOSED to provide, and it isn't doing it. The American Dream doesn't exist to provide millionares with another tax break; it exists to provide opportunities to all men and women regardless of class, race, religion or any other criteria.
As for business, I can't imagine any industry besides the insurance and pharmaceutical industries thinking this is a bad idea. In the scenarios I mentioned above, the minimum wage mother has two less days of missing work, which is two more days of productivity she might otherwise not have provided. The steel worker with the heart attack doesn't miss months of work recuperating. The office worker with cancer doesn't die from undetected terminal cancer, and so gives the office years more of service. These things are all good for business. The most important thing to remember about business is that while executives may provide the ideas, those ideas are worthless without the execution by the workers. Business relationships are social contracts with responsibilities on both sides of the coin.
But I'm sure opponents of socialized medicine will just claim it another handout to the lazy frauds that are killing the welfare system, get in their Bentleys and drive to their doctor, safe in the knowledge they've kept their campaign contributor's fortunes safe. I know better.
Labels: Bush Administration, Health Care, Politics
posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 9:47 AM
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