Socialized medicine and morality

The latest tactic the socialists are deploying to sell socialized medicine is saying "It's the right thing to do."

OK. Right now, children and the elderly are entirely covered by entitlement programs for health care. The poor have Medicaid. Anyone -- including illegal aliens -- can walk into a hospital emergency room and get as much health care as they need.

In addition, all socialized medicine does is reduce the resources available for health care (more about this later) and then spread around whatever is left among more and more people. What this does is lower the quality of care, ensuring that no one but the very rich will have access to the best doctors and facilities. And it will result in eliminating a lot of research and innovation for the development of new -- better and cheaper -- medical procedures and practices.

How is that moral?

I stated before, private insurance companies take the pool created by the premiums paid to them by the insured and invest that pool in other businesses, in stock, even in T-bills, in order to enlarge it. That makes more money available to pay for health care, and it also makes capital available to other businesses inside and outside the health care industry.

How is that immoral? Unless you cling to the superstition that making money and profits is inherently evil somehow.

I don't generally like Howard Dean. I think he's a little crazy and probably a little dangerous. Apart from that, he looks like this jerk I knew in high school. Anyway, he stated the other night that the reason tort reform is NOT a part of the reform bills proposed in congress is because congress doesn't want to make enemies of trial lawyers. Hell, half the people in congress are trial lawyers.

Well, let's look at the morality of trial lawyers.... otherwise known as "ambulance chasers." You've seen the ads on TV: "Have you suffered a slip or fall at work?" Hinting that even if this is something you've completely recovered from, you might still be able to sue. "Have you ever been exposed to asbestos?" Then they list a couple dozen industries that ever used asbestos for anything. Asbestos is an old one. Most of the businesses that worked with asbestos were sued into bankruptcy decades ago... So file your case now while there's still any money left to claim.

Trial lawyers are those who look for misery -- or at least someone who can put on a good show of it -- then sue for medical expenses and huge "punitative damages." Like that silly woman who spilled a cup of hot coffee in her lap then sued McDonald's for $4 million. (Her award was reversed by a higher court, if I recall correctly.)

A few years ago when my car was brand new, I was driving back from a trip to Gettysburg. Got to the Chicago area on I-294 (sort of a beltway), and spent an hour trying to stay out of the "traps" created around me to cause an accident that would look like my fault. It goes like this: A big panel van got behind me, riding my bumper. Then a fairly new car got in front and kept stopping suddenly and for no apparent reason. I was supposed to rear-end the car in front of me so they could sue me.

See, my car was brand new; I had to be insured. This set-up occurred four times within a drive of about 35 miles on the interstate -- same black van behind me riding my tail so I'd be reluctant to stop abruptly, same Toyota four-door in front, intermittently and arbitrarily slamming on the brakes.

I veered into the next lane a couple times to avoid an accident, and at one point just slammed on my brakes, figuring what the heck, I'll get that black van behind me to rear-end me and collect on his insurance. But when I braked suddenly and glanced up at the rear-view mirror, that van was a safe distance behind me, apparently slowing down before I did. Like maybe the driver was psychic or something and expected to stop?

This is an old scam, easily recognizable. Trial lawyers take on these suits and collect 30% of whatever is awarded to the "victims." Trial lawyers have even been known to hire people to make these situations occur. Fraud, of course, but hey, it's a living.

Because of the pay-outs on this kind of fraud and the cost-shifting that results from the government paying only what it wants to pay for Medicare and Medicaid services, the insurance industry is being pressured all around. It's amazing insurance companies have been able to survive as well as they have.

And the way I see it, the insurance industry is the only moral player in this scenario -- the only people trying to make a really honest profit.

But American liberals are driven primarily by an unidentified but prevalent sense of guilt for.... something. Or for anything you care to name. Like, children in Africa are starving. Not the fault of lunatic warlords; no, the real problem is that America isn't doing enough for them. Liberals volunteer for victimhood. They believe it ensures a place in heaven for them. Or something. But they only rarely think things through.

Many of those who are uninsured in the USA are uninsured because they want to be. All the other bases are covered. So tell me how it's "moral" to wreck the quality of care currently available to those who actually pay for insurance in order to offer coverage to those who don't want it and won't pay for it.

I fail to see the logic.

Or, do it for Teddy Kennedy. That's a can of worms I don't even want to touch. Let's just say, Teddy was in a position to personally do something for the poor and indigent, and instead he chose to try to compel the government to do it for him. It protects his own fortune and he still gets to win the title of Do-Gooder (as long as we all agree to turn a blind eye to his whole personal history.)

All right. So in the name of Milton Friedman -- who's also dead, and who also had a very powerful impact on American society, and a much more positive one, too -- let's hold out for a free market solution.