Socialized Health Care: Testament from Canada

Political Philosophy
1

Hi everybody. I’m new to the forum and this is my first post in the discussion forums.

I am a registered nurse who currently works in our government-run health care system up here in Canada. For those of you who are living in America, and those of you from countries that still have private health care , it should be your aim as advocates of individual rights, freedom, and capitalism, to not allow the complete socialization of your health care system.

My experience within a government-run health care system has allowed me to observe striking similarities between the eventual decline and collapse of the Soviet Union and the steady deterioration (and eventual collapse) of a socialized health care system. It is not that they are “good ideas that just don’t work in practice,” they are bad ideas to begin with.

I won’t go into depth with the economic factors of why socialism doesn’t work, and more fundamentally, why it is immoral (this should be self-evident to all adherents to objectivist principles). However, the greatest frustration I have found among my colleagues whom constantly complain about the “system” (ie. long waiting lists, poor working conditions, outdated technology, etc…), is their inablity to look beyond the consequences and try to discover the causes. To most people, whether it’s an emergency room doctor, to a janitor, all the way up to our politicians, the only problem is that: “there’s not enough funding.”

The stifling of free market forces in a health care system is no different than the stifling of free market forces in any industry. Nobody seems to realize that health care (ie. all the technology, all the therapies, all the drugs etc..) are a product of the rational mind. The only way they will continue to be produced effectively and efficiently is if the atmosphere of freedom exists.

2

To most people, whether it’s an emergency room doctor, to a janitor, all the way up to our politicians, the only problem is that: “there’s not enough funding.”

I agree with this from my experiences too, in BC. I remember about a year ago, my family member had diverticuli inflammation that were about to rupture, and could cause major problems within her digestive system and internal organs. There were no rooms at the hospital, so they stuck her in a janitor’s closet that had a bed moved into it, then she waited for 8 hours in pain. Nobody came, they forgot about her, and didn’t give her any water or anything (I wasn’t there to help her). She went to leave to drive to the next city’s hospital 55km away, and left a complaint with the nurse. The nurse’s anwer was “Don’t blame me, blame your Liberal government.”

In our province, we had replaced the NDP with Liberals for provincial government, and their projected increases in health care spending were lower. The government tried to “privatize” janitorial services by hiring non-unionized janitors without 25$ per hour wages, but this met harsh opposition from the hospital workers and nurses unions too.

3

I agree with this from my experiences too, in BC. I remember about a year ago, my family member had diverticuli inflammation that were about to rupture, and could cause major problems within her digestive system and internal organs. There were no rooms at the hospital, so they stuck her in a janitor’s closet that had a bed moved into it, then she waited for 8 hours in pain. Nobody came, they forgot about her, and didn’t give her any water or anything (I wasn’t there to help her). She went to leave to drive to the next city’s hospital 55km away, and left a complaint with the nurse. The nurse’s anwer was “Don’t blame me, blame your Liberal government.”

In our province, we had replaced the NDP with Liberals for provincial government, and their projected increases in health care spending were lower. The government tried to “privatize” janitorial services by hiring non-unionized janitors without 25$ per hour wages, but this met harsh opposition from the hospital workers and nurses unions too.

Sadly, stories like yours are all too common.

My point is that, amongst all the complaining about “lack of funding” (ie. government funding), nobody seems to ask where the funding comes from in the first place, namely: out of our pockets. Just observing the profound waste of money that is our health care system is a discrace and an insult to us as taxpayers. I firmly believe that via free-market forces, if individuals could actually see where their money was going, health care costs would be under control and we wouldn’t have the resource scarcity that we have.

As you pointed out, any reform within our “public funded health care” is met with stiff opposition (especially from Unions). There’s cries from various groups and lobbyists that there will be inequality, and that health care would be too expensive for poor people to afford. Little do they realize that the exorbinant costs of health care are caused by the government monopoly! They look to the US and say, “look, see, they have private health care and look how exensive it is!!” Little do they realize that the US has tremendous health care regulation and government monopoly. In fact, the US had medicare/medicaid coverage before our public health care was even conceived!

One of the comments I hear from opponents of free market health care is that the costs are too high due to increases in technology and the poor people can’t afford it without government mandated coverage. This is bunk because, in a free market, costs of technology goes down over time, not up (as in the health care trend). For example, the proportion of very low income people in Canada and US who have TVs, DVD players, Microwaves, cars, cell phones, home PCs, etc.. is actually quite high. This is because (due to a free market) these technologies have come down in price over time and have become more and more accessible to a greater amount of people (including people in the lowest end of the socio-economic ladder).

4

I’m pleased to hear from you, drewfactor. I’ve run into quite a few people that believe the medical professionals in Canada love their government-imposed slavery. I suppose there may be people that do; go anywhere and you get someone that doesn’t want to have to take responsibility. The question is, are these the people you want doing surgery on you?

I work for a tissue bank in Ohio and as of May a whole rack of new FDA regulations goes into effect. The general response here was, “but we ALREADY comply with these regulations . . .” Why? Because we belong to a PRIVATE accrediting organization with MUCH higher standards. Why the heck do we need a government agency for this?

The European Union inspectors already made it so that we can’t walk down the only access hall between the front and the back of the building on the first floor, so if you want to get to one side of the building from the other you either have to go outside and walk all the way around (and we’re not allowed to wear scrubs outside . . .) or go up to the third floor, go through the access hallway there, and back down to the first floor. I’m waiting to see what ELSE happens. Fortunately I’m not planning on being here much longer.