Why Socialized Medicine will not work

Why Socialized Medicine will not work. BY Carter Clews Carter is the Executive Editor of ALG News

The primary reason medical costs are high is that subsidies are out of control.

The price patients pay for medical treatment does not reflect the actual cost of the procedure. Built into each bill is a substantial surcharge to help pay for the hospital’s overhead—which is sent through the ceiling because so many patients already fail to pay their own way.

Since there’s a limit to how much hospitals can add onto the cost of any given procedure, even the padded payments fail to cover the free riders’ exorbitant bills. And who makes up the difference? You guessed it: the American taxpayer. In fact, by some estimates, taxpayers are already paying some 85 percent of unpaid hospital bills.

For those who remain skeptical of the cost of subsidized—i.e., socialized—medicine, a quick glance at the average emergency room is in order. Public law now demands that emergency room treatment be administered regardless of whether the recipients can pay all—or, in fact, any—of the bill. The result of such misguided utopian altruism is that many “underprivileged” Americans now consider the ER their family doctor.

And who foots the bill for such outrageous abuse? Take a look in the nearest mirror.

So, now comes Barack Obama and his querulous gaggle of cloying quacks to tell us that the way to reduce medical costs is to increase subsidization—the facts of the matter (and the burgeoning deficit) notwithstanding. And when no one is any longer able to afford either subsidization or the true costs of actual treatments (on the rare occasions when they will still be available), well, there go the actuarial charts and in walks the Grim Reaper.

Actually, of course, the way to reduce medical costs is to end subsidization altogether. Does this mean that some people will not be able to go to the emergency room for a band aid or a bottle of aspirin? Probably. In fact, it may even mean that some people will not be able to charge others (as in, you) to cover the costs of their catastrophic illnesses.

But for most people, it will mean that America’s health care system will continue to be the best this side of Shangri-La. And it will also mean that, though nobody lives forever, those who are willing to work hard and pay their own way will have a fighting chance to top the charts. As fortunate as that may be.