I got into a conversation with a couple just the other day and when I mentioned that I am probably going to vote for one candidate over the other, the lady asked "Are you really in favor of nationalized medicine?"
I took a moment, I am sure I looked at her quizzically, and responded that I was totally unaware of any candidate from either party proposing nationalized medicine.
What followed was a brief, but fruitful, discussion of medical care philosophies.
I am not an expert, but I hope to have enough expertise to vote well in November. However, in my understanding, 'nationalized medicine' is the situation where all medical providers (doctors, nurses, technicians, etc) actually work for the government - more specifically, in 'nationalized' systems they would work for the Federal government.
It is my understanding that what is proposed as the health care reforms is actually 'insurance reform.' That is, steps will be taken such that insurers will not be allowed to refuse to cover the 47,000,000 individuals they refuse to cover today. In addition, for the highest-risk patients, a government pool will be established to fund part of the costs of their relatively more expensive health insurance and care.
Now, I will be the first to acknowledge that forcing insurers to cover everyone is interfering to some degree with free enterprise. It is exactly equivalent to the situation if states forced auto insurers to offer liability coverage to all car owners, even if they are high-risk drivers.
WHOA! Wait! Every state already DOES require insurers to offer insurance to all drivers. But we don't have 'nationalized auto ownership' or 'nationalized accident repairs' or 'nationalized body shops' to the best of my knowledge.
I am one of those people that cannot get insurance on my own. And even when I get it through employment, I pay about $1600 per month! Because of past health issues and present chronic conditions, insurers won't insure me. I have to pay exorbitant rates to try to reduce my risk of bankruptcy at the hands of medical bills. Medical bills are teh number one cause of bankruptcy claims!
No, I do not want nationalized health, I want a fair shake at being assured the chance of obtaining affordable health insurance and only one candidate offers that to me today.
-jb
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