From: jpr1@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (James P. Reynolds)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Universal Coverage != Socialized Medicine!
Date: 27 Jan 93 20:02:37 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

In article <C1H6AK.2In@umassd.edu>, pmsc13sg@UMASSD.EDU (Stephen Grossman) write
s:
>
>SG     Yeah, that's right. The government should steal money from those who
>have it and give it to those who don't. Of course, this can be done with due
>process and in non-violent offices by people with briefcases and university
>degrees so its not theft (with the implicit threat of a policeman's gun should
>someone desire not to pay for the welfare state) but social policy. "Hey Lefty!
>Hit that guy with your fist and take his money. Yeah, tell 'em we're liberating
>his wallet. Har! Har! Yeah, we'll buy Joe some cocaine. Yeah, we're stealing
>your money to help a friend. You're not gonna be selfish and refuse to help
>Joe, are you? Hit 'em again, Lefty."
>
>Hitler and Stalin liked socialized medicine. Why not President Slickwillie?

My title line says it all.

Why do the conservatives think that universal health insurance is socialized
medicine?  Clinton is not thinking of having the government employ doctors.

Why do you think Americans are paying 1000 dollars for an MRI that costs 177
dollars in Japan?  Why do you think we are spending 14 percent of our GNP on a
system that 1/7 of our population has no access to?  Why is every OTHER
country in the industrialized world spending less than 10 percent and covering
everyone?  Why do we rank near the BOTTOM of the list of these countries in
crucial health indicators such as life expectancy?

Why do you think the average company in the US spends more than 3000 dollars
per worker on health care while most other coutries spend less than 2000?  Why
does health care add more than 1200 dollars to the price of the average
American car?  Do you think that our system is making our industry more
competitive this way?

It's because our "private" system is WORSE than their national health
insurance, not better.  We have a wasteful, bureaucratic system that overtreats
the rich at the expense of basic care for the poor.  How do you expect to take
care of the deficit if health care costs are increasing at a rate more than
twice the rest of the economy?

I'm sick of hearing these conservatives bury their ostrich heads in the sand
and telling themselves that there isn't a problem.  The system is broken and
it needs to be fixed.

PLEASE, don't let yourself be a tool of the well-heeled insurance companies,
lobby groups, etc. who like things the way they are.  INFORM yourself, for
crying out loud.  Jingoisms like "Hitler and Stalin liked it" are *not* going
to solve anything!  Seems like anytime someone doesn't feel like thinking
about an issue, and just wants to reject a notion blindly, s/he brings up
Hitler or something similar.  This doesn't wash with the more intelligent of
us, fortunately.


RECOMMENDATION:

Go to your library and get the 3-part series by Consumer Reports onthe
nation's health care crisis.  It's an excellent comprehensive introduction to
the REAL problems.  It separates the truth from the spin-doctor bullshit.
It's in the July, August, and September 1992 issues.



-- 
James P. Reynolds       (that's Jim to you and me.)     jpr1@lehigh.edu
     Lehigh University Materials Science Rules          jreynolds@igc.org
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