Worried about the cost of medical care today and in the future? So do most Americans. But don’t think that “Universal Healthcare” or “Single Payer Healthcare” [read: socialized medicine] are the cure for the problem. Walter Williams, one of my favorite academic economic types, has a piece concerning just this issue.
London’s Observer (3/3/02) carried a story saying that an “unpublished report shows some patients are now having to wait more than eight months for treatment, during which time many of their cancers become incurable.” Another story said, “According to a World Health Organisation report to be published later this year, around 10,000 British people die unnecessarily from cancer each year — three times as many as are killed on our roads.”
The story is no better in Canada’s national health care system. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based Fraser Institute has a yearly publication titled, “Waiting Your Turn.” Its 2006 edition gives waiting times, by treatments, from a person’s referral by a general practitioner to treatment by a specialist. The shortest waiting time was for oncology (4.9 weeks). The longest waiting time was for orthopedic surgery (40.3 weeks), followed by plastic surgery (35.4 weeks) and neurosurgery (31.7 weeks).
The United States has a government health system. It’s called the Veterans Administration and it operates numerous clinics and hospitals throughout the US. I’ve trained and worked in several of these facilities over the years and there is tremendous waste in the system. The quality of care, regardless of what VA officials may say, is not up to the standards of the private systems. Often, the VA depends on private systems and institutions to provide physicians and residents for continued operation. Veterans become trapped in a system that fails them terribly.
Here is how Williams concludes his piece.
There’s a cure for our health care problems. That cure is not to demand more government but less government. I challenge anyone to identify a problem with health care in America that is not caused or aggravated by federal, state and local governments. And, I challenge anyone to show me people dying on the streets because they don’t have health insurance.
And Dr. Williams, don’t forget the lawyers. By trolling for malpractice cases, they increase the cost of healthcare. As a defensive posture, doctors, for fear of being sued, order more tests and consultations then is needed. These blood tests, scans, MRI and the like cost us all billions.
