(If you’re just joining this series, feel free to read the previous installments.)
Check Your Health Care Premises (Part 1)
The admonition to “check one’s premises” is at the heart (and, indeed within the very title) of this ongoing series regarding Capitalism versus Socialism.
And, perhaps, nowhere is that more important than when it comes to health care.
After all, there are two very key points about our modern healthcare situation; one which is very legitimately at “top of mind awareness” of most American citizens today. And that is:
Our health care system is broken. It is not working. Most people can’t afford it, and most everything about it is now counter-productive and in many ways harmful.
However, the next point is the one that is based on a false premise; a dangerously false premise, and that is:
Capitalism is the cause of our current health care mess. In other words…The free enterprise system has failed us in terms of health care.
And, that is simply false.
Of course, when not checking premises (thus a good chance of a premise being false) it’s easy for one to arrive at that false conclusion. After all, since we don’t have – what they have in many other countries – complete and full “Universal Health Care” the conclusion for many would naturally be that we do have a capitalistic/free enterprise-based health care system.
And that is also false.
We haven’t had a market-driven healthcare system for nearly 50 years. In Part Two of this series we’ll revisit that, see how things were when our healthcare system was market-based (hint: it worked really well) 🙂 and what actually happened that made it go so far downhill in such a relatively short period of time.
After all, if it wasn’t the Free Enterprise System that turned things south, it had to be something, right? Indeed, and we’ll see exactly what it was.
Please keep in mind that things don’t happen in a vacuum. Typically, not only is there a reason for something, but that something usually happened further back than what is indicated by its current situation; what I call the “emotional decision point” from which we want to “base” the conclusion and subsequent actions.
When that’s the case, too often an emotional decision is made which not only doesn’t allow the actual problem (the cause) to be dealt with and solved but makes its manifestation – or current situation – even worse.
A couple of years ago, Michael Moore’s movie, “Sicko” captured the imagination of the country. I didn’t have to see it to know what would be in it; I’d read plenty of Mr. Moore’s thoughts about health care. I knew that – in his movie – he’d introduce us to Americans who have no health care insurance and are being left to suffer, or worse; to die.
And, you know what? Had I seen his movie, my heart would have broken for them as it does for the many others I know and/or know of who are experiencing this. Indeed, I ask myself why – in this most abundant of nations – should anyone have to go without adequate healthcare? But, before going running to our federal government to set things right for us…I’d check my premises.
Before asking government to be the solution to our “ills” (something at which they’ve proven to be very un-qualified), I’d first ask, “why are we in this position in the first place?”
I know how most politicians, how Michael Moore, and, unfortunately, how most Americans would answer: “The Free Enterprise System has let us down.”
The reason I know this is because I hear it constantly. I only wish that before people – especially those of high influence – would utter these conclusions; that they would first…yep, check their premises.
And that’s what we’ll do in the next installment. I hope you’ll join us.
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A medical conference held in the early 1990’s called for a new model of health care, outlining how the current one is causing more problems than it was solving. It is now 2009 and to the best of my knowledge this call had not been answered. That in itself is a reason for why the system is not working.
I was quite dis-illusioned with what I experienced of the USA system when I worked there in 1996-7. My profession of occupational therapy was moving more to patient oriented services and yet the various health insurances were dictating what we could or could not do. There is no consistency.
I remember a clear case where I was requested to teach a patient a bath transfer prior to her discharge in keeping with dictates of her health insurance. The patient did not have a bath at home and needed to learn safety in her home and a solution to showering, teaching her to get in and out of a bath was just a waste of time and therefore money. If this happened for one patient, what of countless others whose treatment plan was dictated by money driven administrators rather than by the professional trained to evaluate, and treat the person according to their unique needs.
It is a worrying situation but not a new one, this has been years in coming.
Shoshanah
Hi Shoshanah, as a healthcare professional, you have constant access to see just how counterproductive, harmful, and certainly costly the current system has become. And, of course, by the early 1990’s, which you refer to in your comment, the government takeover of our health care system had been underway for a long time. (This will be the focus of the next article, “Healthcare-Part 2).
Interesting to me, however, is that they called for a “new model of healthcare” instead of “checking their premises” (yep, there’s that term again) and asking what happened in the first place to what was an amazingly productive and helpful system just several decades earlier.
You also nailed another problem of government-run healthcare (and, please make no mistake about it; that’s what we currently have in the U.S. even though it hasn’t reached the complete and final level of “Universal Healthcare)…and that is, government-run anything will always tend to be “one size fits all.” And, of course, since individual people have individual wants, needs and desires, it simply doesn’t work, but can frustrate the heck out everyone involved in the process. Plus, it’s costlier and often harmful.
Yes, and people are calling for “more government involvement” into our healthcare system? Amazing, isn’t it?
Please stay tuned for the following parts in the series.
Bob
Hi Bob!
I, for one, am very interested in “Health-care Part 2”.
There’s a small town in the US, right now, where no one has to go without healthcare even if they don’t have insurance. Several doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers give their time to treat the poor. Someone could make a movie about that and possibly change some minds about what needs to be done…:-)
Ask any doctor what he/she thinks about “more government involvement” in healthcare…and stand back. Someone could make a movie about that too :-).
Thank you, Bob, for your thoughtful blog,
Pamela
Hi Pamela,
Thank you for your always insightful comments. Interesting is that – before our government began to take over healthcare, it seemed like practically every town had something similar to the town you are referring to.
Another great point you reminded me of: if you ask most healthcare professionals today what they think of more gov involvement in the healthcare system, they seem to reel back with a “haven’t they caused enough harm?” type of response.
We’ll look at this further in subsequent articles.
Bob
Hi Bob,
My concern with nationalized medicine is there is no way to fulfill the promise that it would be more affordable and better run than it is now. The proponents refuse to call it what it is, and that is a MASSIVE entitlement program that the federal government cannot afford to fund. We, the tax payers, cannot pay for it – it is just not possible. The current system, while not perfect, is still a better option than having the government get their hands in it. Why are we going to allow politicians, who can’t run a hot dog truck, take over the medical system? What incentive are we giving the future medical talent to fulfill their dreams of being a doctor if we’re going to be told by career politicians what assistance they can and cannot give their patients. And just think of how many great doctors we’re sure to lose to retirement when faced with the choice of dealing with the bureaucracy of the government as their primary source of income.
Bob, it may not be the best system but I don’t see people running to the socialized medical programs in Canada and England for the best medical care available. The US is still the best health care system with the best medical talent in the world. If we allow the feds to take it over, and saddle the taxpayers with another massive level of debt on top of debt we ALREADY can’t pay for, we’re sure to be on the road to ruin.
Great job on the blog, keep up the FANTASTIC work!
Steve
NY, NY
Hi Steve,
You make great points and, for all the reasons you mentioned, and more, we should not have Universal Healthcare.
The good news is that it is not an “either/or” situation (current healthcare situation OR Universal Healthcare). We can actually get back to a market-based system (which we currently do not have)when healthcare was affordable for the masses. We’ll be discussing that in subsequent articles.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Steve.
Best regards,
Bob
Bob