Mr. [Kerry] Hunt,
While I don’t fully support Obama’s health care plan (I prefer something a little more comprehensive, like HR 676, the Conyers-Kucinich “Medicare for All” bill), I [don’t agree with] your statement that nationalized medicine “has only seen very limited success in countries with much smaller populations than our own.”
1) Why does population matter? Citizens pay higher taxes than in the United States for their healthcare, so the proportion should work out. More citizens equals more money to pay for their health care.
2) Who told you that it isn’t successful? In case you didn’t know, the World Health Organization ranked us No. 38 in overall health care standards, and we have extremely high rates of infant mortality and low life spans compared to Canada, Japan and much of Europe, especially the Scandinavian countries (Sweden and Norway).
3) We are the only industrialized nation that doesn’t have some type of nationalized health care. While it is my opinion that everyone still harbors some sort of ridiculous “red scare” ideas based on the false assumption that socialism equals communism, I think it also stems from our independence. Every other country could be doing just fine, and we like to think we have to do it a unique way here in America.
4) Some people mention waiting times for surgeries, etc., in countries with nationalized health care. However, I think it’s quite obvious no reasonable human being would make a cancer patient wait three months for chemotherapy or make someone with a broken leg wait two weeks for resetting.
5) Let’s take an example. Sweden’s government pays 85 percent of its citizens’ health care costs. Swedes pay a nominal (read: very small) fee when they visit the doctor for any reason. Obviously, they pay much higher taxes than Americans.
However, the amount they pay in taxes is actually much less per capita than Americans spend on healthcare themselves. We spend 50 percent more on healthcare than the taxes they pay to support their system. They have 3.28 physicians for every 1,000 people while we have just 2.56.
Their infant mortality rate is half ours. And finally, their average life expectancy is four years higher than ours. While I won’t say that a nationalized healthcare plan has no flaws or that all countries run their systems the same way, I will say that it’s unfair to say they are “largely unsuccessful.”
However, neither candidate offers a lot of specifics on their “plans.” I remain largely skeptical of both candidates and question their true intentions. We must also remember that what a presidential candidate wants to do to our healthcare system is really a moot point if they can’t get Congress to go along with them.
Cody Jordan is a sophomore majoring in biological sciences. He can be contacted at [email protected].