Introduction Background on problems caused by government intervention in the health care market. PLEASE NOTE: THIS INCLUDES the UNITED STATES health care industry, which is HEAVILY regulated...with the usual results. Worldwide Experiments in Socialism Links, articles and figures detailing widespread and specific problems in countries with varying degrees of socialized health care. Great Britain Other European Countries Canada Former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Cuba New Zealand Australia Americans Blindly Supporting More Government through so-called Universal Health Care Socialist health care system supporters often point to sky rocketing health insurance prices in the U.S. as a problem with a "capitalist" system. However, all of the pervasive problems within the U.S. health care system are a direct result of statism. U.S. health care problems caused by government intervention Economics - yes, it applies to health care, too Straight from the Statist Guide Book... What about those "40 million without health insurance"? Why does "the U.S. spend such a high percentage of its GDP on health care"?

Great Britain [Top]

Great Britain's National Health Service (NHS) was created on July 5, 1948. As with all government programs, bureaucrats underestimated initial cost projections. First-year operating costs of NHS were 52 million pounds higher than original estimates1 as Britons saturated the so-called free system. Many decades of shortages, misery and suffering followed until 1989, when some market-based health care competition was reintroduced to the British citizens2. Unfortunately for those requiring care, a mostly socialist health care system has problems. The articles and commentaries in this section identify some disasters caused by government intervention in the British health care system. I also recommend reading David G. Green and Laura Casper's economic report, Delay, Denial and Dilution: The Impact of NHS Rationing on Heart Disease and Cancer to see the inevitable outcome of the necessary rationing of government health care. Straight from the newspapers Labour's secret plan to send overweight children to NHS fat camps - Laura Donnelly, September 6, 2009 [Telegraph UK] Burnham Forgets 230,000 on List - Macer Hall, August 14, 2009 [Daily Express (UK)] £1.2bn bill for the bureaucrat army within the NHS - Jenny Hope, August 13, 2009 [Daily Mail (UK)] Couples Face an IVF Postcode Lottery - Katherine Fenech, August 6, 2009 [Daily Express (UK)] Kidney cancer patients denied life-saving drugs by NHS rationing body NICE - April 29, 2009 [Daily Mail (UK)] Girl, 3, has heart operation cancelled three times because of bed shortage - David Rose, April 23, 2009 [Times Online] Number of children going to hospital to have teeth pulled soars by 66% since 1997 - Daniel Martin and Cher Thornhill, April 12, 2009 [Daily Mail (UK)] NHS 'failings' over elderly falls - March 25, 2009 [BBC] Learning disabled 'failed by NHS' - Nick Triggle, March 24, 2009 [BBC] Cancer survivor confronts the health secretary on 62-day wait - Lyndsay Moss, March 21, 2009 [The Scotsman] Culture of targets prevents nurses from tending to patients - Claire Rayner, President of the Patients Association, March 21, 2009 [Telegraph UK] Children being failed by health system, says head of watchdog - Sarah Boseley, March 21, 2009 [Guardian Unlimited] Our cancer shame: Survival rates still lag behind EU despite spending billions - Jenny Hope, March 20, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)] Failing hospital 'caused deaths' - March 17, 2009 [BBC] Health gap drive 'wasted money' - Nick Triggle, March 14, 2009 [BBC] Longer GP opening hours branded wasteful 'PR exercise' by doctors - Lyndsay Moss, March 13, 2009 [The Scotsman] "Political meddling" threatens general practice, warns GP leader - March 13, 2009 [Management in Practice (UK)] Children at risk through lack of training for doctors and nurses, report warns - Rebecca Smith, March 13, 2009 [Telegraph UK] Chocolate should be taxed to control obesity epidemic, doctors are told - Simon Johnson, March 13, 2009 [Telegraph UK] 1,000 villagers wait for a dentist after just one NHS practice opens - March 10, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)] Study that proves the folly of NHS Alzheimer's drug ban - Jenny Hope, March 7, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)] NHS charges to rise in England - March 5, 2009 [BBC] Disabled children wait up to two years for wheelchairs - March 4, 2009 [Guardian Unlimited] NHS under fire over waiting times - February 25, 2009 [The Scotsman] Government procrastination blamed for HIV-contaminated blood tragedy - February 23, 2009 [Guardian Unlimited] Specialist nurses 'vastly overworked' - February 20, 2009 [Harwich & Manningtree Standard] Hundreds of operations cancelled at Lothian hospitals - Adam Morris, February 19, 2009 [The Scotsman] Stop asking for antibiotics to cure coughs and colds, Government tells patients - Daniel Martin, February 17, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)] Stroke services are 'UK's worst' - February 17, 2009 [BBC] Hospitals curb caesarean births - Sarah-Kate Templeton, February 15, 2009 [The Times] Only five out of 51 hospital trusts pass hygiene test, say inspectors - Sarah Boseley, November 24, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited] Top doctors slam NHS drug rationing - Sarah-Kate Templeton, August 24, 2008 [The Times] Heart patients dying due to poor hospital care, says report - Sarah Boseley, June 8, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited] NHS dentistry loses almost a million patients after new dentists' contract - David Rose, June 6, 2008 [The Times] Private healthcare managers could be sent to turn round failing NHS hospitals - Philip Webster, Political Editor, and David Rose, June 4, 2008 [The Times] Cancer patients ‘betrayed’ by NHS - Sarah-Kate Templeton, June 1, 2008 [The Times] NHS scandal: dying cancer victim was forced to pay - Sarah-Kate Templeton, June 1, 2008 [The Times] Pensioner, 76, forced to pull out own teeth after 12 NHS dentists refuse to treat her - Olinka Koster, March 26, 2008 [Daily Mail(UK)] Dental patients face care lottery - March 26, 2008 [Metro(UK)] Lung patients 'condemned to death as NHS withdraws their too expensive drugs' - Jenny Hope, March 24, 2008 [Daily Mail(UK)] Women in labour turned away by maternity units - John Carvel, March 21, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited] Health inequality has got worse under Labour, says government report - Andrew Sparrow, March 13, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited] Angry GPs reluctantly accept plan for weekend and evening surgeries - John Carvel, March 7, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited] NHS chiefs tell grandmother, 61, she's 'too old' for £5,000 life-saving heart surgery - Chris Brooke, February 28, 2008 [Daily Mail(UK)] Patient 'removed' from waiting list to meet target - January 31, 2008 [The Scotsman] NHS patients told to treat themselves - James Kirkup, January 4, 2008 [Telegraph UK] NHS is 'failing patients' despite record funding - Rebecca Smith, October 4, 2007 [Telegraph UK] NHS rationing rife, say doctors - September 24, 2007 [BBC] One in eight patients waiting over a year for treatment, admits minister - John Carvel, June 8, 2007 [Guardian Unlimited] Audit Office asked to investigate record £500m NHS underspend - John Carvel, May 30, 2007 [Guardian Unlimited] The drugs the NHS won't give you - May 11, 2007 [Telegraph UK] UK lagging behind on cancer drug access, study finds - May 10, 2007 [Guardian Unlimited] One in six trusts is still putting patients on mixed-sex wards - Daniel Martin, May 10, 2007 [Daily Mail(UK)] Specialist stroke care 'lottery' - May 9, 2007 [BBC News] Smokers and the obese banned from UK hospitals - May 2, 2007 [Healthcare News] Cancer patients told life-prolonging treatment is too expensive for NHS - Lyndsay Moss, February 13, 2007 [The Scotsman] UK health service "harms 10 percent of patients" - Kate Kelland, July 7, 2006 [Reuters] 5,000 elderly 'killed each year' by lack of care beds - June 26, 2006 [Telegraph UK] Dental Socialism in Britain - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., May 9, 2006 [LewRockwell.com] Pay for nurses and surgeons doubles NHS overspend - Beezy Marsh, Patrick Hennessy and Nina Goswami, April 23, 2006 [Telegraph UK] The money addicts: it's your cash they are gambling with - Patience Wheatcroft, April 23, 2006 [Telegraph UK] NHS chiefs get luxury car deals - Daniel Foggo and Steven Swinford, April 9, 2006 [The Times] Secret NHS plan to ration patient care - Nigel Hawkes, April 7, 2006 [The Times] British Healthcare To Be Rationed - April 7, 2006 [United Press International] British body rejects EPO drugs for cancer patients - March 17, 2006 [Reuters] National Health Service - Grappling with Deficits - March 9, 2006 [Economist.com] Hundreds wait to register as another dentist quits the NHS - Martin Williams, September 23, 2005 [The Herald (Scotland)] Life-saving cancer drugs 'kept from NHS patients by red tape' - Sam Lister, September 20, 2005 [The Times] NHS slides into the red despite record increases in health care spending - September 20, 2005 [Telegraph UK] Alzheimer's sufferers hit by further delay in NHS approval for vital drugs - Michael Day, September 18, 2005 [Telegraph UK] We all pay a price for our 'free' NHS - John Smith, August 19, 2005 [The Scotsman] 2,000 British doctors out of work - August 14, 2005 [The Washington Times] UK health 'unsustainable' - August 14, 2005 [Finance24] NHS faces rising bill for negligence claims - Ben Hall, August 8, 2005 [Financial Times] British boy to go to India for operation - August 5, 2005 [United Press International] NHS failed to stop doctor raping scores of women - Lois Rogers and Jonathon Carr-Brown, July 31, 2005 [The Times] Top crimewriter funds drugs for cancer victim refused by NHS - Martyn Halle, July 8, 2005 [Telegraph UK] Report says NHS is mired in huge debts - David Simms, June 25, 2005 [ABC Money (UK)] U.K. set to restrict smoking - June 21, 2005 [The Associated Press] NHS ‘fund bias’ against men may cost 2,500 lives a year - Sarah-Kate Templeton, June 19, 2005 [The Times] Doubts on funding NHS 'monuments' - Nicholas Timmins, June 10, 2005 [Financial Times] 17 million reasons why we must improve hospital meals - June 7, 2005 [Cambridge Evening News] Figures show more patients waiting for operations - June 3, 2005 [Guardian UK] Scarcity of NHS dental treatment is revealed - Celia Hall, May 19, 2005 [telegraph.co.uk] Why NHS Opposes 'Treatment by Demand' for the Dying - Stephen Howard and Jan Colley, PA, May 18, 2005 [Scotsman] 800 queue for NHS dentists - May 5, 2005 [telegraph.co.uk] Hundreds more heroin addicts to be given a fix on the NHS - Nic Fleming, April 25, 2005 [telegraph.co.uk] British health service facing nurse exodus - April 25, 2005 [United Press International] About 400 patients a year in Scotland succumb to MRSA - April 25, 2005 [Scotsman] NHS debts soar to over £1bn - Karyn Miller, April 24, 2005 [telegraph.co.uk] British taxpayers foot $26.5 million bill for abortion tourists - April 18, 2005 [Catholic World News] U.K. Liberal Democrats Would Raise Taxes to Pay for Health Care - Reed Landberg, April 14, 2005 [Bloomberg] Number of NHS Bureaucrats 'Rising Faster Than Health Staff' - Joe Churcher, March 22, 2005 [Scotsman] '£500m hole' in hospital budgets - Celia Hall, March 21, 2005 [telegraph.co.uk] 1,000 Scots desert NHS every week - Murdo Macleod, March 5, 2005 [Scotsman] British NHS facing financial crisis - March 3, 2005 [Washington Times] NHS drugs regulator to withdraw approval of Alzheimer's treatment - Nicholas Timmins, March 2, 2005 [FT.com - Financial Times] NHS waiting list rises - February 11, 2005 [Guardian UK] Tumour patients hit by NHS shortages - Jo Revill, February 6, 2005 [Guardian UK] NHS financial crises set to outlast winter - Mike Waites, February 4, 2005 [Yorkshire Post] NHS 24 'priority' callers wait four hours for advice - Caroline Wilson, January 14, 2005 [Evening Times (UK)] 'No strategy' on NHS waiting time - January 14, 2005 [BBC] Output figures show NHS decline - John Carvel, October 19, 2004 [Guardian UK] Heart patients die on waiting lists - Peter Sharples, October 18, 2004 [Manchester Online] £25bn overspend feared for NHS computer network - Karen Attwood, October 12, 2004 [telegraph.co.uk] Gaps in care cost £7bn, says charity - John Carvel, October 4, 2004 [Guardian UK] NHS excluding poor people, UK - September 15, 2004 [Medical News Today] Smokers 'should not get NHS care' - September 6, 2004 [BBC News] Waiting list row blights Brighton - John Carvel, September 4, 2004 [Guardian UK] Patients are denied the last rites under data protection law - Elizabeth Day, July 25, 2004 [telegraph.co.uk] Shortage of dentists to double by 2011 - John Carvel, July 24, 2004 [Guardian UK] Britain's stiff upper lip gives way to a snarl - Sarah Lyall, July 18, 2004 [The New York Times] Hospital Overcrowding A Cause of Superbug Infections - John von Radowitz, July 1, 2004 [Scotsman.com] Hospital Crisis: Fallen Angels - Lindsay Mcgarvie, May 23, 2004 [Glasgow Sunday Mail] Study finds British hospitals are still austere, cold, smelly and poorly maintained - May 6, 2004 [News-Medical.net] Hospital bathrooms and showers: a continuing saga of inadequacy - Andy Monro, MRCP & Graham P Mulley, DM, FRCP, May 2004 [Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine] Majority back public smoking ban - March 24, 2004 [BBC] Discrimination Rampant In British Health Care - Peter Moore, November 17, 2003 [365gay.com] PERIPATETICS—To the Medical Socialists of All Parties - Sheldon Richman, September 2003 [FEE.org] Creeping Privatization? Shortages of skilled workers, low morale, long queues for services, crumbling facilities and corrupt practises. - Roland Watson, August 6, 2001 [LewRockwell.com] The World's Worst HMO - Stephen D. Moore, November 24, 1999 [Random Thoughts] Socialized Medicine in Great Britain: Lessons for the Oregon Health Plan - Professor John Spiers, March 18, 1999 [Cascade Policy Institute] The Sickbed Which is Socialized British Medicine - December 23, 1997 [NCPA] The British Way of Withholding Care - Harry Schwarz, March 1989 [FEE.org]

Other European Countries [Top]

Only six potency pills per month to be covered by Social Insurance Institution - August 13, 2004 [Helsingin Sanomat] Hospitals on the verge of a breakdown Switzerland’s hospitals may be the envy of the world, but rising health costs and patient numbers are increasingly putting the system under strain. - July 24, 2003 [swissinfo.org] Sweden Edges Toward Free-Market Medicine - A. Wess Mitchell, August 31, 2001 [NCPA] Netherlands aims to tackle health divide Socioeconomic inequalities remain similar to those in the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries, despite a sustained effort over 20 years. - Tony Sheldon, October 13, 2001 [British Medical Journal] A Hard Lesson About Socialized Medicine Europeans are now learning some hard facts of life about socialized medicine: there's no such thing as a free lunch.- September 23, 1996 [CATO] Paying The Price For Drugs In Europe Whether they admit it or not, those who advocate 'making drugs more affordable for American seniors' are actually headed down a slippery slope to price controls, free-market analysts charge.- Stephen D. Moore, July 21, 2000 [NCPA]

Canada [Top]

Parliament unanimously passed the Canada Health Act in 1984 and established a single-payer, publicly-financed health care system. To ensure a true government monopoly (is there any other kind?) Canadian provinces outlawed private health insurance. Chaoulli v. Quebec UPDATE (June 9, 2005): In a 4 to 3 decision, the Canadian Supreme Court struck down Quebec's law that prohibits private medical insurance. Surgery postponed indefinitely for 1,000 Kelowna patients - Cathryn Atkinson, April 8, 2008 [Globe and Mail] Majority of Que. dentists quit health-care system - March 27, 2008 [CTV.ca] Why Ontario keeps sending patients south - Lisa Priest, February 22, 2008 [Globe and Mail] Will Socialized Health Care in the US Kill Canadians? - Don Surber, March 3, 2008 [Acton Institute] Wait times for surgery, medical treatments at all-time high: report - October 15, 2007 [CBC News (Canada)] The Ugly Truth About Canadian Health Care - David Gratzer, Summer 2007 [City Journal] Cancer patients question why PET scan not covered - May 28, 2007 [CBC News] BC Medical Association: Waiting Too Long for Hip and Knee Surgery Costs $10,000 Per Patient-Maximum Wait Times Should Be No Longer Than 6 Months - June 28, 2006 [CCN Matthews] Ont. physician turns away patient for being 55+ - March 17, 2006 [CTV.ca] Canada inches toward private medicine - Rebecca Cook Dube, August 8, 2005 [CS Monitor] Doctor defends private cancer clinic - Gillian Livingston, July 15, 2005 [Canadian Press] Dogma trumps truth in health-care issues - D’Arcy Jenish, July 7, 2005 [Ontario Business News] Why Canadians Purchase Private Health Insurance - Walter Williams, June 20, 2005 [Capitalism Magazine] Doctor welcomes health ruling - June 9, 2005 [CBC Montreal] Patients shouldn't wait more than 8 weeks for cardiac defibrillator: experts - May 24, 2005 [Canadian Press] Grads fail to slow doctor shortage - Jennifer O'Brien, May 21, 2005 [London Free Press] Free Canadian health care comes at cost - April 10, 2005 [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette] Canada's drug tab reaches $22 billion, report suggests - Sheryl Ubelacker, CP, April 6, 2005 [London Free Press] Canadian health care is free and first-class -- if you can wait - Beth Duff-Brown, March 19, 2005 [The Associated Press] Pediatricians, parents warn of shortage of community-based care for children - Colin Perkel, March 4, 2005 [The Canadian Press] Access to specialists difficult: study - February 16, 2005 [CBC Calgary] Doctor shortages, frustrations vary from region to region, survey shows - February 15, 2005 [Canada.com] Montreal leads the country in offering private health care - Aaron Derfel, February 12, 2005 [Montreal Gazette] Canada falling short on medical imaging - February 9, 2005 [Macleans.ca] Creative incentives required to retain older doctors - Dr. Charles Shaver, January 20, 2005 [Toronto Star] MRI gap defies cash fix - Mark Kennedy, January 14, 2005 [National Post (Canada)] A boy's plight, a nation's problem - Lisa Priest, January 13, 2005 [The Globe and Mail] Where's proof private clinics cost more? - Tom Brodbeck, December 4, 2004 [The Winnipeg Sun] Surgery backlog tops 5,500 at kids' hospitals; One-year waits common - Aaron Derfel, December 3, 2004 [The Gazette (Montreal)] Hospital wait lists to get worse, Carriere says - Chris Traber, November 14, 2004 [Yorkregion.com] Frustrated patients can't handle ER waits - Jennifer Stewart and Jeffrey Simpson, October 28, 2004 [The Halifax Herald Limited] Private medical clinic opens in Montreal ...it answers, "an ever-increasing demand from the public for greater accessibility and quality of health services." - October 13, 2004 [CTV.ca] Canadians have higher death risk than Americans after heart attack: study - Sheryl Ubelacker, September 20, 2004 [Canada.com] Canadian medical tourists in India - Jeremy Copeland, September 20, 2004 [CBC News] Doctor shortage cripples Canada's free health care - Clifford Krauss, September 18, 2004 [Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune] Canada's Once-Proud Public Health System in Crisis - David Ljunggren, September 14, 2004 [Reuters (Ottawa)] Hospitals to cut, again - September 5, 2004 [Toronto Star] Canada's Medical Nightmare - Robert J. Cihak, M.D., September 1, 2004 [Health Care News] Canada faces shortage of doctors - August 19, 2004 [MSNBC] Canadians losing faith in health system: poll - August 16, 2004 [CTV.ca] Ontario hospitals a health risk - Michael Hurley, August 8, 2004 [Toronto Star] Need surgery? Here's how long you'll wait "It's inhuman. The quality of my life is horrible and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it." - Jason Fekete, July 28, 2004 [Calgary Herald] Docs, nurses fed up Canadian doctors and nurses are fed up with inter-governmental "bickering" that is dragging out wait times and causing more pain and suffering for patients. - July 28, 2004 [Winnipeg Sun] Free Health Care? ...in some cases, patients die on the waiting list because they become too sick to tolerate a procedure. - Walter E. Williams, July 24, 2004 [CATO] The truth about Canada's ailing health-care system All the major candidates in Canada's recent national election acknowledged that the country's health-care system is failing Canadians. - Robert J. Cihak, July 13, 2004 [The Seattle Times] Health-care crisis looms, even with new money Canada's health-care system is "five to 10 years" from the breaking point -- even with cash injections from government, says the new president of the B.C. Medical Association. - Doug Alexander, July 5, 2004 [Vancouver Sun] Emergency room delays a strong campaign factor "Go into the emergency room — it is the most pitiful piece of work you ever seen in your life." - David Bruser, June 22, 2004 [Toronto Star] Canadian Health Care in Crisis Analyst visits NC to describe how single-payer health care really works in practice. - Donna Martinez, June 17, 2004 [Carolina Journal] Quebec cancer patients sue over wait Women waited months for radiation; lawsuit could cost system $50-million. - Ingrid Peritz, March 11, 2004 [The Globe and Mail] Health care: no waiting lists 'You get knee surgery within two days ... try and get that in human hospitals.' Canada's [private] pet health-insurance industry is projected to grow at roughly 50 per cent a year... - Robert Scalia, November 30, 2003 [Montreal Gazette] For some, surgery abroad a welcome answer - Daniel Girard, November 29, 2003 [Toronto Star] Canadian Doctors Eyeing United States - Clifford Krauss, October 17, 2003 [The New York Times] The Top Ten Things People Believe About Canadian Health Care, But Shouldn’t - Brian Lee Crowley, October 9, 2003 [Mackinac Center for Public Policy] Canadians' health at risk, CMA says - Valerie Lawton, September 26, 2003 [Toronto Star] Burnout is now doctors' ailment Almost half of Canadian doctors say they're burned out, emotionally exhausted and blame medicine for putting a drain on their family life. - Karen Palmer, August 20, 2003 [Toronto Star] New MRI clinic in row over poaching While she insists she's not making any money off the venture, she says it provides an income allowance for her and her husband, the other principal in the company. - Theresa Boyle and Robert Benzie, July 28, 2003 [Toronto Star] Price Controls and Overall Drug Spending The Canadian system, however, tends to push up overall spending on prescription drugs, despite the low prices for some brand name ones. - John Melby, July 2, 2003 [Buckeye Institute] Gore Endorses Canada's Medical System - William L. Anderson, November 29, 2002 [Mises] How Good is Canadian Health Care? - August 2002 [Fraser Institute] Canadian Health-Care System Is No Model for Prescription Drug Reform - May 1, 2001 [Mackinac Center for Public Policy] The Ghost of America's Health Care Future Lives in Canada Today - James Frogue and Robert Moffit, December 25, 2000 [Capitalism Magazine] Socialized Medicine: The Canadian Experience Explores several lessons that can be drawn from the Canadian experience with socialized medicine: Socialized medicine, although of poor quality, is very expensive; Political compromise is the result; Socialized medicine is both a consequence and a great contributor to the idea that economic conditions should be equalized by coercion. - Pierre Lemieux [The Freeman] Canadian Health Care ...if Canadians knew as much as they think they do about the economic and moral workings of Medicare, they might not be as enthusiastic as they are about their cherished right to 'free' health care. - Andrei Kreptul, August 30, 2000 [Mises] When Patients Become Victims - The Crime of Government-Run Health Care - Merrill Matthews Jr., Ph.D. and Kerri Houston, May 1, 2000 (PDF format) Socialized Medicine Leaves a Bad Taste in Patients' Mouths - Lawrence W. Reed, February 23, 2000 [Mackinac Center for Public Policy] Canadians Dissatisfied With Socialized Medicine - January 26, 2000 [NCPA] Memo to Al Gore: Canadian Medicine Isn't Cheap or Effective - William McArthur, former chief coroner for British Columbia, January 28, 2000 Loved to Death: America's Unresolved Health-Care Crisis As Canada's national government slashes spending on medical care in order to reduce the deficit, local provinces are reducing medical staff. In Ontario, pregnant women are being sent to Detroit because no obstetricians are available. Specialists of all kinds are in short supply. Patients have to wait eight weeks for an MRI, ten weeks for referral to a specialist, and four months for heart bypass surgery. - Michael J. Hurd, November 1997 [Liberty Haven] Is Canadian Health care a Good Model for the U.S. to Follow? - Michael Walker, August 1994 [Liberty Haven] Health of the State (commentary by a cancer survivor) I tell you this not to alarm you, to elicit sympathy, or to bore you. I tell you because the episode has been, for me, a salutary lesson (just in case I needed one) in why the government should not be allowed anywhere near a syringe, a dressing, a scalpel, an oxygen mask, a tissue sample — anything to do with health. Michigan Shouldn't Copy Canada's Health System - Lawrence W. Reed, July 29, 1991 [Mackinac Center for Public Policy]

Former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [Top]

Russia's Health Care Is Crumbling: Dire Lack of Funds Creates Sick, Dwindling Populace And 'National Emergency' - Jeanne Whalen, February 13, 2004 [Wall Street Journal] Capitalism Comes to Russian Health Care With the "free" government-run health system in Russia in a state of collapse, an increasing amount of health care is being provided by for-profit clinics and hospitals. - Michael Wines, December 22, 2000 [New York Times] Russia's public health care system is crumbling - Rob Reynolds, November 13, 1995 [CNN] Socialized Health-Care Nightmare In contrast to the impression created by the liberal American media, health-care institutions in Russia were at least fifty years behind the average U.S. level. - Yuri Maltsev and Louise Omdahl, November 1994 [Liberty Haven]

Cuba [Top]

The Cuban Government has implemented a two-tiered medical system (e.g. "medical apartheid") that caters to foreign tourists while denying native Cubans access to basic medical necessities (at least it is "free" to them). This attempt to draw foreign dollars is one of many programs that were necessary once the Soviet subsidies ended in the early nineties. Castro's Diet and Exercise Plan - Ronald Bailey, September 25, 2007 [Reason] Castro says still in full control after fall The Communist dictator received prompt medical care to repair his shattered kneecap. He even used his cell phone from the ambulance. If only his countrymen had similar access to service and "evil" capitalist technology... - Anthony Boadle, October 22, 2004 [Reuters] La Lucha: The Human Cost of Economic Repression in Cuba - Patricia Linderman, May 2000 [FEE] Bad Cuban Medicine Begging for medicines is common in Havana - next to begging for money to feed children, it is the most common plea... - Larry Solomon, April 15, 2003 [Capitalism Magazine]

New Zealand [Top]

New Zealand's Ministry of Health is the New Zealand "Government's principal agent and advisor on health and disability." On the waiting list roller-coaster - Martin Johnson, March 20, 2008 [The New Zealand Herald] No charge for trips to emergency department The figures show most people who arrive at the emergency departments don't need to be there.- Alison Brown, December 17, 2004 [Rotorua Daily Post] Surgical waiting lists numbers come under twin attacks - November 15, 2004 [stuff.co.nz] Hospital Waiting Lists Under Serious Pressure - October 26, 2004 [Scoop New Zealand News] Hundreds on waiting list as hospital pleads for help - August 23, 2004 [The New Zealand Herald] Private hospitals offer help with waiting lists - August 12, 2004 [The New Zealand Herald] Alarm over GP shortage - July 5, 2004 [The New Zealand Herald] Hospital urges patients to stay away unless really ill - March 6, 2004 [The New Zealand Herald]

Australia [Top]

Australia's universal health care scheme is relatively new (introduced in 1983, which built on the 1974 Medibank program). As with all socialized health care systems, there is a mixture of public versus private care (approximately 30% of Australians also retain private health insurance). As a result, the private patients receive better care than their medicare counterparts. The salary caps and artificial increase in demand for care that always occur in a national health care system are resulting in predictable physician shortages. Mental patients face bed shortage - Clara Pirani, July 4, 2005 [News.com.au] Public patients wait longer for surgery - June 29, 2005 [The Sydney Morning Herald] Painful wait for care - Luke McIlveen, February 17, 2005 [Herald Sun (Australia)] Hospitals crippled by poor planning - Ruth Pollard, December 1, 2004 [Sydney Morning Herald] Operating theatres shut to save cash as thousands wait for surgery - Nick O'Malley, November 23, 2004 [Sydney Morning Herald] Private funds creating 'two-tier' health system - David Uren, November 3, 2004 [The Australian]

U.S. health care problems caused by government intervention [Top]

All of the pervasive problems within the U.S. health care system are a direct result of statism. Unfortunately, most Americans buy into the feel-good soundbites and look to the socialist utopia to provide answers, not understanding that additional government intervention always worsens the problems. Not even the so-called experts who villify capitalism understand the difference between Statism/socialism and liberty (see Dr. Arnold S. Relman's For-Profit Health Care: Expensive, Inefficient and Inequitable, in which he refers to "HMOs that would be paid by the government" as "care under the private system"). "War on Fat" Creeping socialism gives government bureaucrats the power to pry into your eating habits for "the public good". Deadly shortage The federal ban on profit incentive is killing those awaiting organ transplants. Entitlement programs eating up U.S. budget - Stephen Ohlemacher, December 27, 2005 [IndyStar.com] New York Medicaid Fraud May Reach Into Billions - Clifford J. Levy and Michael Luo, July 18, 2005 [The New York Times] Bad Medicine The blame for the inadequacies caused by government’s intrusion into health care and other industries does not lie solely on the shoulders of politicians and bureaucrats; it also lies on the masses. - Emiliano Antunez, June 24, 2005 [Strike the Root] Medical trade is rife with inefficiencies, health secretary says - Dave Murphy, May 25, 2005 [San Fransisco Chronicle] Wanted: Scientific Reason for FDA's Gay Sperm Ban - Aubrey Noelle Stimola, May 23, 2005 [American Council on Science and Health] Clinton, Gingrich Team Up on Health Care - Kevin Freking, May 12, 2005 [The Washington Post] A Cancer Patient Faces the Chaos of the American Health-Care System - Rosalind Lacy MacLennan, April 27, 2005 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] Why There's No Cure for the Common Cold - Bill Walker, April 21, 2005 [Strike the Root] Feds get tough on Net drugs - Richard B. Schmitt, April 21, 2005 [SFGate.com] Kill the Prescription Drug Benefit - George Reisman, March 1, 2005 [Mises] How Medical Boards Nationalized Health Care - Henry E. Jones, February 24, 2005 [Mises] Drug Safety vs. the FDA - Alex Epstein, February 18, 2005 [Capitalism Magazine] America’s Socialized Health Care - Lawrence Wilson, M.D., Posted January 24, 2005 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] Bureaucratically Incompetent: Mental Illness and Government Intervention - Ira Katz, November 9, 2004 [LewRockwell.com] Health Care in John Kerry's World Health care and politics are a toxic combination for a life and death issue. - September 21, 2004 [Capitalism Magazine] The Therapeutic Nanny State This new proposal threatens to force millions of kids to undergo psychiatric screening, whether their parents consent or not. - Rep. Ron Paul, MD, September 21, 2004 [LewRockwell.com] Republican Health Care Contradictions Government provided health care can increase only in inverse proportion to freedom. - Richard E. Ralston, August 30, 2004 [Capitalism Magazine] Bush to screen population for mental illness - June 21, 2004 [WorldNetDaily] 100 Years of Medical Robbery A happy 100th birthday to the Council on Medical Education...and for the sake of all our health, hopefully not too many more. - Dale Steinreich, June 11, 2004 [Mises] Taxpayers foot bill for aliens' care - April 1, 2004 [WorldNetDaily] Health Care in Prison - William L. Anderson, February 23, 2004 [Mises] Feeding Obesity The state creates programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, which force one segment of the tax-paying population to pay for the health care of another segment, creating the incentive to avoid taking personal responsibility for one’s own life and to make others suffer the consequences. - Scott McPherson, February 13, 2004 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] Ephedra ban sets bad precedent for consumer choice - Mark D. Valenti, January 9, 2004 [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette] A New Prescription For Cutting Costs - Wayne Dunn, December 20, 2003 [Capitalism Magazine] Republican Socialism Congress worked late into the night this past weekend to pass a Medicare prescription drug bill that represents the single largest expansion of the federal welfare state since the Great Society programs of the 1960s. - Rep. Ron Paul, MD, November 25, 2003 [LewRockwell.com] Why Medicare Expansion is Wrong Adding prescription drug coverage to Medicare, as Congress is poised to do, is merely more socialism --- it will neither help seniors nor is its passage likely to gain their votes. - Scott Holleran, November 22, 2003 [Capitalism Magazine] Socialized Medicine in America Thanks to the untiring efforts of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Americans have been faced with the greatest expansion of the government into medical care since the 1960s. - Timothy D. Terrell, November 2003 [Mises] Kill Bill - To Expand Medicare ...expanding Medicare is among the most ill conceived notions in American politics. - Scott Holleran, October 14, 2003 [Capitalism Magazine] Paying Dearly for Free Prescription Drugs - Rep. Ron Paul, MD, October 7, 2003 [LewRockwell.com] A Poison Pill for U.S. Health Care? - Tom Miller, July 15, 2003 [CATO] How Socialism Happens Here - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., June 8, 2003 [LewRockwell.com] Health Care Interventionism: A Case Study The demise of HealthPlus illustrates the unintended consequences that accompany any government intervention of market forces. - Christopher Westley, January 21, 2003 [Mises] New Senate Leader Must 'Do No Harm' There is nothing in Frist’s Senate record to show that he’s even considered free-market options or principles for rescuing America’s rapidly dying healthcare system. - S.M. Oliva, January 2, 2003 [Capitalism Magazine] Red Flags Over Health Care - Bill Sardi, November 11, 2002 [LewRockwell.com] Government Regulation of Hospital Purchasing -- Michigan Patients Pay a Heavy Price - Dr. Wolfgang Grassl, October 29, 2002 [Mackinac Center for Public Policy] "Universal" Health Insurance Will Only Enlarge the Medicare Problem - Nina Owcharenko, May 26, 2002 [Capitalism Magazine] Morris Fishbein, AMA Enemy of American Health - Bob Wallace, February 2, 2002 [LewRockwell.com] Drugs and Politics - Thomas Sowell, November 27, 2001 [Capitalism Magazine] Fun With Numbers "After reading Christopher Westley’s fine article, The Carriage-Trade Trend, I got to thinking about the imminent demise of the health-care industry in this country." - Robert Klassen, August 6, 2001 [LewRockwell.com] One Patient, 34 Days in the Hospital, $7,000 Syringes and a $5.2 Million Bill - posted by Antiwar Republican, August 2, 2001 [FreeRepublic] Socialized Medicine in 10 Easy Steps HIPAA, MSAs, S-CHIP show how Republicans unwittingly lead the political parade toward increasing government control of health care. - Merrill Matthews Jr., Ph.D., June 30, 2001 [Capitalism Magazine] Physician group pushes universal health care Says participation must be 'mandatory,' taxpayer-financed. - Jon Dougherty, February 9, 2001 [WorldNetDaily] The Medicare Bureaucracy is a Frankenstein Monster That is Destroying American Medicine - Lawrence Huntoon, M.D., December 22, 2000 [Capitalism Magazine] Subsidizing Sickness: Medicine and the State - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., October 26, 2000 [LewRockwell.com] Emergency Medicaid Program For Immigrants - October 18, 2000 [NCPA] Medicare should be scrapped, eventually Medicare was a bad mistake. We can repeat it -- over and over -- or we can scrap a program whose time never came. - Jon E. Dougherty, October 16, 2000 [WorldNetDaily] Medicare snafu breaks podiatrist Agency's non-payment of claims forces closure of doctor's office. - Jon E. Dougherty, July 30, 2000 [WorldNetDaily] The Patients' Bill Of Rights: A Prescription For Massive Federal Health Regulation - John S. Hoff, Esq., February 29, 2000 [Heritage Foundation] The Medical Mess - William Anderson, January 18, 2000 [Mises] The War on Online Drugs The Clinton administration wasn’t content with blowing up a pharmacy in the Sudan; now it wants to blow up hundreds of them on the web. - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., December 30, 1999 [Mises] Medicare in Red According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), red is the fashion color for the summer. Red tape, that is. - Alejandra Arguello Camerlengo, July 14, 1999 [CATO] Why Price Controls on Prescription Drugs Would Harm Seniors - James Frogue, May 4, 1999 [Heritage Foundation] Why the FDA Wants to Limit Your Freedom - Henry I. Miller, July 6, 1998 [Washington Times] Kidcare: Socialized Medicine Through Government Schools More than thirty states have already implemented school-based health care programs. - Sue A. Blevins & SuYoung Min, January 20, 1998 [IHF] Medical Regulation Piled on Medical Regulation - Sheldon Richman, November 1997 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] The Creeping Takeover of Medical Care President Clinton favors barring health-insurance companies from using genetic testing to determine whom they will insure. - Sheldon Richman, July 1997 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] The Back Door to Nationalized Health Care - Doug Bandow, June 2, 1997 [CATO] FDA Actions Threaten Civil Liberties - Jerry Taylor, February 14, 1997 [CATO] More Kid Stuff Advocates of politically controlled universal health care coverage have retooled their offensive game plan. Uninsured children will serve as blocking backs for an end run around opposition to regulatory mandates, one-size-fits-all benefit plans, bureaucratic rigidities, and taxpayer-financed cross subsidies. Welcome to the opening round of Village Care 1997. - Tom Miller, January 1, 1997 [CEI] Blank Check for Mental Health A few years ago a young woman in Pittsburgh, who had trouble getting to work on time, found a psychiatrist who declared that she suffered from 'chronic lateness syndrome.' Now, if the U.S. Senate has its way, every insurance policy in America will be forced to pay for this woman and millions like her. - Michael Tanner, December 31, 1996 [CATO] The Medical Monopoly: Protecting Consumers or Limiting Competition? Nonphysician providers of medical care are in high demand in the United States. But licensure laws and federal regulations limit their scope of practice and restrict access to their services. The result has almost inevitably been less choice and higher prices for consumers. - Sue A. Blevins, December 15, 1995 [CATO] Are American Children Being Lured Into Socialized Medicine? - Naomi Lopez, June 28, 1994 [Institute for Health Freedom] Medical Control, Medical Corruption - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., June 1994 [LewRockwell.com] Free Medicine Rising prices pushed the cost of medical treatment beyond the range of more and more people. But, unfortunately, the original culprits — Medicare and Medicaid — were not identified as the cause. - William Dale, February 1994 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] The Medical Socialism of V.I. Magaziner - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., December 1993 [LewRockwell.com] National Health Insurance: A Medical Disaster - Jarret B. Wollstein, October 1992 [Liberty Haven] Free ... But the Patient Doesn't Get Well - Lawrence W. Reed, April 1992 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] Breaking Up the FDA's Medical Information Monopoly - Robert M. Goldberg [CATO]

Economics [Top]

Health care is a limited commodity- even if the statists ignore this fact. Rising Health-Care Spending May Force Tax Increases - Kristen Hallam, June 26, 2006 [Bloomberg] Healthcare Nightmare: Controlling the Cost of Cost Control - Richard E. Ralston, June 26, 2005 [Capitalism Magazine] Prescription Drug Advertising is Good for All of Us - Richard E. Ralston, June 25, 2005 [Capitalism Magazine] Bill Clinton and Socialized Medicine That Bill Clinton could get the emergency heart care his survival required within 3 days underscores a life-and-death difference between medicine under capitalism and under socialism. - Andrew Bernstein, September 23, 2004 [Capitalism Magazine] Why Is There No Car Insurance Crisis? - Wayne Dunn, August 16, 2004 [Capitalism Magazine] The Real Price of a Free Lunch - Walter Williams, August 11, 2004 [Capitalism Magazine] Free Market Medicine As with all goods and services, medical care is best delivered by the free market, with competition and financial incentives keeping costs down. - Rep. Ron Paul, MD, May 5, 2004 [LewRockwell.com] Nationalized Health Care Will Cut Costs? It Just Ain’t So! Curiously, interventionists believe consumers are (a) too ignorant to identify bad doctors on a free market, but (b) capable of voting for good politicians to improve health care. - Gene Callahan and Robert Murphy, January 2004 [FEE] Health Care for All! - Christopher Mayer, June 10, 2003 [Mises] Health-Care Socialism It is the responsibility of each and every American to provide for his own medical needs, by contracting for such services on the free and open market. - Scott McPherson, June 2003 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] 'Universal health care' Before we even consider throwing away what works in favor of something that has failed repeatedly, we need to stop reacting to words and start looking at facts. - Thomas Sowell, May 6, 2003 [TownHall.com] Homeopathy, Economics, and Government ...it can be seen that the current attempts at regulation have roots as far back as 200 years ago. - Linda Johnston, MD, DHt, October 3, 2002 [LewRockwell.com] Bad Medicine Those who are constantly pointing to the prices and the practices of other nations when it comes to pharmaceutical drugs ignore the fact that those other nations lag far behind the United States when it comes to creating new medicines. - Thomas Sowell, August 13, 2002 [Capitalism Magazine] Libertarian Solutions: There are free market answers to America's health care crisis Only by expanding consumer choice, freeing people to spend their own money, and unshackling the free market can America save its ailing health care system. - Jonathan Trager, June 24, 2002 [LP News] Health Care is a Privilege, Not an Entitlement for All Without "excessive profits" of insurance and pharmaceutical companies, there would be no funding for vital research. - Rick Smith, December 21, 2001 [Capitalism Magazine] Drug Companies: Saving Lives, Making Money - Merrill Matthews Jr., Ph.D., October 7, 2001 [Capitalism Magazine] A Free Market for Health Care - Sheldon Richman, June 1992 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] The Coming Push for National Health Care - Teffee R Wasley, January 1990 [Liberty Haven] The Real Free-Market Approach to Health Care - Jacob Hornberger

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Footnotes [top]
1 - M. Foot (1997). Aneurin Bevan: A Biography. New York: Atheneum. [Great Britain]
2 - P. Day and R. Klein, "Britain's Health Care Experiment," Health Affairs, Fall 1991, pp. 39-59; and A. Enthoven, "Internal Market Reform of the British Health Service," Health Affairs, Fall 1991, pp. 60-70. [Great Britain]