The sweet seductiveness of socialized medicine for The Bahamas

by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

Driving to a lunch meeting on Monday, July 6, 2009 while skipping through the radio dial I stumbled on Love 97's, Issues of The Day programme with host Mr. Wendall Jones interviewing Ms. Etoile Pinder on the benefits of socialized medicine and basically how Bahamians are getting a raw deal by not having it.

For those that don't recall, Ms. Pinder was with the team that was charged by the PLP government to implement Socialized Medicine here in The Bahamas.

For the ten minutes or so that I was able to listen, I got the impression that if Bahamians would only go for this utopian idea all their health problems will be resolved, and no longer would some wealthy person get better care than they would. It's almost as if no one else will die and Bahamian's will never want for a thing when it comes to their health care if they would just buy into socialized medicine.

Oh, but I forgot. All Bahamians need to do is fork over a few dollars a week in taxes and these problems will go away in a socialized medicine scheme. At least according to Ms. Pinder and the other advocates.

I would suggest that it is intellectually dishonest to encourage Bahamians to believe that socialized medicine is better than if they were to purchase a private health care policy themselves.

Here's one story from Britain:

Rosser, 57, was told the cost of Sutent, 3,140 pounds ($4,650) per treatment for his advanced kidney cancer, was too high for the NHS -- the government agency that funds the nation's health care. The resident of the town of Kingswood, in southwest England, has appealed the decision twice, and next month may find out if his second plea is successful.

Read the entire article here...

And here's a story from Australia:

The Opposition spokeswoman on health, Jillian Skinner, said the Government was financially irresponsible and reckless.

"We have a $380 million health budget deficit, more than $300 million in unpaid bills on top of that and donated money in trust funds being used for recurrent expenditure instead of the hospital projects they were given to build," she said.

Read the entire article here...

Of course it's easier to sell the sweet seductiveness of socialized medicine - something for nothing - rather than tell people it's better to take personal responsibility for their health care plans.

But of course I'm just another heartless businessman that does not care about the "small man". Right?