From: laelth@yabbs
To: minutemn@yabbs
Subject: re: Socialized Medicine
Date: Thu Feb 10 13:02:57 1994
OK, calm down, before this gets too personal:
    First off the Democratic Party isn't advocating a Socialized system.  
What are you talking about?  Second, Republicans stick together like a cow 
pattie.  Democrats, unfortunately, don't have good organizational skills, 
so they're already fighting amongst themselves abut the President's (very 
modest) reforms.  I am in no way echoing the Democratic party.  You are, 
no doubt, a card-carrying Republican, and are saying the exact same thing 
that every other Republican in America is saying today, "There is no 
health care crisis."  That's the lie.  There is a crisis, and the longer 
that we ignore it the worse it's going to get.
    Now, about giving money to the government.  I admit, that any large 
system, like the US Government, is bound to be inefficient to a degree.  
And, there is a great deal of waste in the government, and  no doubt, a 
socialized system would create some bureaucratic lag, if you will.  
However, there's a ton of lag in the current no-system.  The massive 
insurance industries, the lawyers, the judicial nightmare, is the lag that 
the status-quo creates, and a socialized system would, without a doubt, 
strongly constrict this bureaucratic mess.  Need I repeat the irrefutable 
logic?  OK, here goes, once again.  Malpractice litigation would be 
reduced to almost nothing becausedoctors would gain a degree of immunity 
against malpractice lawsuits because they would be, in effect, government 
employees.  Only the most blatant of malpractice cases would ever go to 
court.  This would greatly reduce the cost of health care in the US, 
because the lawyer's cut of the health-care pie would be greatly reduced.
Furthermore, the largest single driver of health-care costs (the insurance 
industry) would be virtually eliminated.  If the government payed for all 
health care, then there would be no need for the hundreds of thousands of 
insurance adjusters that the current system supports.  If you would, 
please, deal with this argument in some rational form so that I don't have 
to repeat it again.
    About the VA hospital, no, I've never been to one, but I can tell you 
that my sister gave birth to two babies in VA hospitals (for free).  She 
chose the free (socialized) care, if you will, over the way-too-expensive 
private care for which she was not insured.  You see, for the poor people, 
for those who don't have good insurance, and can't afford prime medical 
treatment, any socialized system (regardless of how poor) is better than 
no access at all.

    -laelth