Friday, June 12, 2009

The Decisions of the Well Being of a Person?

Grandpa, grandma and I went to a town hall meeting one night when a person was invited to speak on a political issue. It was a speech on the idea of socialized medicine. As the person spoke it became very apparent that he was an advocate. The speech was eloquently presented and you could see by the reaction of those attending that they were moved very deeply by it.

When the man was finished grandpa quickly arose and asked if he could present a rebuttal to the argument presented. He was given permission only because he promised to make it a short rebuttal in spite of the time given to the guest speaker. He walked very slowly to the front gathering his thoughts on the way. As he spoke I could see he spoke slower than he usually does as if he needed the added time to formulate his ideas as he spoke. I’ll let you judge now on how well he did.

“Taxes seem to be the main political issue of the day now. The President is spending tax dollars as if it grows on trees. The legislature is doing all it can to help him in this effort in spite of the fact they were elected to be sure taxes were spent wisely. I actually believe that those people really think that the paper they print up has the value it says on it.

There is talk now about universal single payer health care too. Advocates tout the affordability as justification of it. People forget the most important lesson that free enterprise has taught us. It is competition that keeps costs of goods and services down. Monopolies may have lower prices at first but that serves only one purpose. Its purpose is to eliminate the possibility of competition.

I’ll grant that when we think of monopolies the first thing that comes to mind is businesses. However, you can have a monopoly at the consumer side of business also. You can have a single payer for the whole of the society. While that single payer may demand and get lower costs he will also create a negative response.

Less services or less commodities will result from this type of monopoly. Fewer people will offer that service or commodity to a society because the return on all personal investment will be next to nil, both in terms of the giver and the receiver. If we look at all those nations that offer a single payer health plan we find this to be a fact of business.

You’ll find plenty of studies evaluating health care systems but one thing that is usually left out in those studies, patient satisfaction of the system. These studies depend upon third person statistical evidence to justify any of their claims. Most studies only consider services as offered rather than services given or received. Any businessman will tell you that it is the latter that determines the value of the service. It is services given and received that result in the profitability and success of those services offered.

We live in a nation that was founded upon the idea and are constitutionally bound upon the principle that a person was to be allowed to make his own choices in life. We are not allowed to make choices for others even if it is detrimental to society itself. The only exception to this would be choices of criminal intent.

As we heard here tonight, those that tout the idea of universal health coverage cite the fact that there are about 43 million persons without health coverage as justification. That is less than 15% of the population this nation. They’ll cite how other nations have already solved their problem on this issue. They’ll even cite a system that they think should be a model for us to emulate.

What they won’t cite is how many of those 43 million are illegal aliens therefore unfairly skewing the numbers. What they won’t cite is the number of persons who are without health coverage by choice, not by lack of affordability. What they won’t cite is the number of persons eligible for existing programs but have chosen not to participate in them for some reason or another. What they won’t cite is the number of persons where this situation is a temporary situation and not of a permanent type but are counted as being without coverage. Ask yourself one question. Why won’t they?

A person’s well being is probably the most important personal decision that can be made in life. When a person speaks of universal health coverage what they won’t tell you is that it will be a decision that will not only effect 310 million people of today’s population but will effect untold millions of people of tomorrow’s population.

Do we, as a society, have the right to take away a personal decision as important as this from the individuals of this society regardless of how it may look to other societies? When we discuss an issue of this magnitude shouldn’t the people themselves have a direct say in the matter? It is their rights that is being discussed here tonight. It is their rights that they will be giving up if our guest has his way. Health is an important issue but is it more important than the issue of who has the right to make the decisions about it?”

A hush fell over the room as grandpa finished and slowly but somberly walked back to his seat next to grandma. When he sat down she just gave him a grin of approval with a pat on his leg.

13 comments:

BB-Idaho said...

Patient satisfaction has been studied, according to FoxNews
Now, back when I was a tyke the Doc made house calls!

Timothy said...

I love you grand pa and have never met him. A wise man. Maybe he should run for office. No, probably not. That wisdom thing would keep him from it. :)

The Griper said...

apparently, my return comment got lost in cyberspace, BB.

good article you linked to. good thing i qualified my statement on that. lol

i remember those house calls also. tis another little thing that kids now days are missing out on. also remember next day appointments too.

i do wonder tho if size of community may be a factor in the change of how it is practiced since no system can be declared as satisfactory or ratio of doctors to population?

Gayle said...

I agree, Grandpa is a smart man. ;)

Griper, how is it that people think we can have both freedom and socialism at the same time? When the government owns everything that same government can also take everything away. Freedoms get stripped one at a time.

I just don't understand the mindset.

The Griper said...

believe it or not, gayle, there is a form of freedom associated with socialism. that is why i said to choose liberty rather than freedom a few posts back.

BB-Idaho said...

What we have is not very good, and getting worse rapidly. Count me with our US physician community.

The Griper said...

sounds as if we have a good topic to have a good long discussion on finally, BB. :) then he hollers into grandma, hey, sweetie, can ya bring a couple of brews out here for our good friend and me?

another good article, my friend, a bit biased but good anyways.

"... and shifting costs back to patients or to other payers."

that is a given for any system unless they are advocating that medical care should be free.

"... treats health care as a commodity... rather than as a social service"

its a "service" regardless of system but just not a social service in our system. and that is what the debate is about, whether or not to make it a social service. my only question to this is, why shouldn't be treated in the same manner that every other service is?

"that, along with profits, divert resources from clinical care to the demands of business"

we need to remember, profits is what gives people the means to shelter, feed and clothe their families and do the same for employees. it is also the means from which a business can update any equipment it needs. so, if profits are taken away from the equation how does an employee who no longer is working there meet these needs?

remember, governments survives on taxes. and taxes comes from profits. youu eliminate profits from an industry you also eliminate the taxes that come from that industry. how can there be a savings?

BB-Idaho said...

Ah Griper, having clarified my position, I shan't pester more..and look forward to Grandma's
cool brews and Grandpa's tales of yore. :)

The Griper said...

you're never a pester, my friend and there is always a cold one in the box for ya as we sit out here and enjoy the sun as it sets

Gayle said...

Thanks for your clarification (e-mail) Griper. I appreciate it. I always learn something from you. :)

Lista said...

Griper,
Why won't they sight what they have left out? That's easy. It's because the information is Biased and Deceptive and presented for the purpose of supporting their side of the issue.

I consider what is happening today in our Government to be very Leftist Extreme and I don't like it any more than any other Republican or reasonable Democrat.

I never did quite get the Liberty, verse Freedom distinction. Sometimes I don't understand all the details relating to Socialism either, yet I've heard quite enough to make me feel quite leery of it.

Gayle,
Yeh, I learn a lot from Griper too. He's just got such an interesting way about him.

Karen K said...

Grandpa sure is a smart guy!

Well said.

Anonymous said...

I love your blog.. Keep it going..

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