The case against government run healthcare

Elijah Friedeman, the Millennial Perspective

John Stossel has written an exellent article for RealClearPolitics on the Obama healthcare plan. He takes a look at Canada and Great Britian to see how well their government run healthcare programs are working out.

In England, health care is "free" -- as long as you don't mind waiting. People wait so long for dentist appointments that some pull their own teeth. At any one time, half a million people are waiting to get into a British hospital.

And Canada is much worse.

In America, people wait in emergency rooms, too, but it's much worse in Canada. If you're sick enough to be admitted, the average wait is 23 hours.

More than a million and a half Canadians say they can't find a family doctor. Some towns hold lotteries to determine who gets a doctor. The losers must wait to see a doctor.

This from Canadian doctor David Gratzer:

"Literally we're surrounded by medical miracles. Death by cardiovascular disease has dropped by two-thirds in the last 50 years. You've got to pay a price for that type of advancement."

Canada and England don't pay the price because they freeload off American innovation. If America adopted their systems, we could worry less about paying for health care, but we'd get 2009-level care -- forever. Government monopolies don't innovate. Profit seekers do.

Those last two sentences encapsulate the argument for capitalism and free markets. Governement run programs will fail. Private enterprises are constantly improving and seeking to do better. A government run healthcare plan would ruin America's medical system, not improve it.

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