It won't be passed for a while, if it ever is, but in order to set socialized medicine up for our country, I think that we have to start changing hearts and minds now. Currently, "socializing" anything makes many people in the United States think of Soviet tanks imposing their atheistic will upon the defenseless masses, which is silly, because there are many capitalist countries who have created socialized medical systems. We have to gradually change this mind-set if we are ever to create a socialized medical system that serves the people of our country well.
Many of you may be opposed to socialized medicine anyway, but I think that you should look at the talking points and judge their worth. Basically, I want to express some sentiments that you can use to, I suppose, frame the issue. I'll give them after the jump.
- Our society should have a basic set of living conditions or "social floor" below which our people should never descend. Just as we should not let a single American (or human being from any nation, for that matter) starve, we should not deny them of health care. The weakest among us are entitled to our help, as the historical and moral judgment of our culture is partly based upon how we treat our most helpless.
- While capitalism is a great system, its virtues of maximizing profit are ultimately incompatible with the medical tenets of giving the best care possible. A business, as our hospitals, HMO's, and insurance companies are, has a responsibility to create profit, through maximizing revenue and minimizing cost. People who need medical help often cannot afford the time to seek out the lowest cost or conceive of how to do such a thing, and busineses can easily take advantage of these facts. They also will have a drive to lower cost, often to the detriment of the people that they must service. While businessmen will claim that they believe in their responsibility to give the best care possible (and many of them believe in that responsibility,) the temptation to skimp on that responsibility is enormous.
- There is ultimately a tragedy of the commons in regards to poorer people and their health care. This tragedy regards middle class people, and anyone without health insurance. Often, preventive care and early interdiction are the best and least costly ways to address medical concerns. If one does not have proper insurance, though, he or she is pressed into avoiding medical attention until a problem is utterly unbearable. At this point, these unfortunate people are at the mercy of the system, often becoming a burden to the state or other costumers who must pay for medical care themselves. (Insurance companies typically avoid accepting part of the burden through business deals with the hospital that is affected.) Additionally, the loss of productivity created by workers not having received preventive care or early interdiction affects our economy negatively. In essense, we are creating inefficiencies because of our want to create efficiency through the use of capitalism in a sector for which it is inappropriate.
- We can reduce child suffering, abortion rates, and other social ills through the implementation of a nationalized medical system. Children are sadly some of the innocent victims of our private health care system. Because poor parents often cannot afford to bring them to the doctor, they must suffer needlessly. Because poor mothers-to-be cannot afford the medical costs of raising a child, they are forced to contemplate abortion. Because drug users cannot afford rehabilitation, they end up creating more crime. The list goes on and on.
- Conservatives wish to preserve a model of aristocracy through maintaining a private health care system. The wealthy can pay for health care that the poor can only dream of, and this fact does not match our American value of equality. This is the model that kings of old used, and we do not live in a monarchy.
- Other free nations have set up socialized medical systems, and they are better off for it. While it is important that we maintain our American identity amongst all of the liberal democracies of the world, we should be ashamed that we were beaten to this basic service by countries that have been democracies for much shorter times.
I'm sure that I've missed some points, and I have complicated many of the points presented, but I think that it is important that we plant the seeds of socialized medicine into the minds of Americans. It will do us good.