Hot Air and the daily caller are excited to pronounce socialized medicine dead as the British NHS plans to contract with private hospitals and providers on top of socialized care. From The Caller: Joseph A. Morris, a former Reagan White House lawyer who now serves on the board of the American Conservative Union, told TheDC that socialized medicine has turned out to be a threat to Britons' health, and to their economy as well.
"Europe's message to the world is no longer that the socialist dream of the cradle-to-grave welfare state is an easy achievement," Morris said. "Rather, it is the shouted warning that it is a fool's paradise. The bills are coming due and the only real alternatives -- serious financial reform of government or national bankruptcy -- are not pleasant."
Um no. This is a combination of egregious apples-to-oranges comparison and gross simplification. Their argument depends on a mis-characterization of virtually every other medical system in the world. By saying Britain allowing privatization into their single-payer system is "Europe" rejecting socialized medicine assumes that Britain's health care system resembles any other system in Europe. It does not.
In fact, most universal systems are unlike Britain's. Only Canada and New Zealand have similar, government-run single payer systems. Other socialist European paradises like France, Germany, the Netherlands etc., actually have very different systems. They rely on either insurers (with heavy subsidization for the poor), or other health collectives to pay for patient's medical costs to private hospitals.
Further, the healthcare system envisioned by the health care reform act in this country is very, very far from being single payer, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, when you look at it, it's going to be much more like the Netherlands system...
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