Tennessee Ready To Scrap Socialized Medicine
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A trial balloon for socialized medicine (nicknamed "Hillarycare", due to Clinton's support of it), called "Tenncare", has failed. Tenncare is being scrapped to avoid gigantic expenses, which are well known to socialized healthcare systems. A pronounced problem with this program is that 28% of Tenncare users saw their doctor monthly, compared to 11% overall. Additionally, 7% of Tenncare saw their doctor weekly, compared to 3% overall. This isn't necessarily bad, as it may indicate that people who need to see their doctor do so, and avoid more costly surgeries. However, this could be caused by some unnecessary legislation, such as requirements for new prescriptions on drugs which the government classifies as "controlled substances" (some of which, like concerta, are used frequently for ADD or ADHD, which everyone seems to have nowadays). Because some ADD-causing chemical seems to be in water, perhaps government should put small amounts of concerta in that same water to counteract the ADD-causing substance? At the least, this would prevent the ADD-ers from forgetting to take their medicine, which is a large problem and due entirely to the nature of ADD.
To return to the topic; socialized medicine has failed in Tennessee. Even though Tenncare covered relatively few people, it had huge costs that the state could not afford. I expect the same to be true for any national healthcare system, because healthcare costs are simply more than the US economy is really able to cover. Much of this cost is due to research and the high prices of new medical tools, so one of the best ways to lower healthcare costs would be to end development in the field of medicine. Of course, no one wants to do this, so the US is faced with either high healthcare costs or a cultural shift against the "every life is important" mentality, so that medical technology will not develop as quickly. The "every life is important" mentality formed after WWI, and it can be traced by reaction to war casualties. WWI saw huge casualties, and so did WWII. Casualties were actually quite acceptable in WWI, and only marginally less so in WWII. By Vietnam and Korea, however, large casualties were not acceptable, though some loss of life was expected and tolerated. By the Black Hawk Down incident, the Gulf War, and Gulf War II/Iraqi Liberation, casualties are unacceptable. In fact, America can no longer allow deaths of foreign civilians, either. Hell, we don't even approve of killing the enemy, though they actually hope to die when fighting us.
A trial balloon for socialized medicine (nicknamed "Hillarycare", due to Clinton's support of it), called "Tenncare", has failed. Tenncare is being scrapped to avoid gigantic expenses, which are well known to socialized healthcare systems. A pronounced problem with this program is that 28% of Tenncare users saw their doctor monthly, compared to 11% overall. Additionally, 7% of Tenncare saw their doctor weekly, compared to 3% overall. This isn't necessarily bad, as it may indicate that people who need to see their doctor do so, and avoid more costly surgeries. However, this could be caused by some unnecessary legislation, such as requirements for new prescriptions on drugs which the government classifies as "controlled substances" (some of which, like concerta, are used frequently for ADD or ADHD, which everyone seems to have nowadays). Because some ADD-causing chemical seems to be in water, perhaps government should put small amounts of concerta in that same water to counteract the ADD-causing substance? At the least, this would prevent the ADD-ers from forgetting to take their medicine, which is a large problem and due entirely to the nature of ADD.
To return to the topic; socialized medicine has failed in Tennessee. Even though Tenncare covered relatively few people, it had huge costs that the state could not afford. I expect the same to be true for any national healthcare system, because healthcare costs are simply more than the US economy is really able to cover. Much of this cost is due to research and the high prices of new medical tools, so one of the best ways to lower healthcare costs would be to end development in the field of medicine. Of course, no one wants to do this, so the US is faced with either high healthcare costs or a cultural shift against the "every life is important" mentality, so that medical technology will not develop as quickly. The "every life is important" mentality formed after WWI, and it can be traced by reaction to war casualties. WWI saw huge casualties, and so did WWII. Casualties were actually quite acceptable in WWI, and only marginally less so in WWII. By Vietnam and Korea, however, large casualties were not acceptable, though some loss of life was expected and tolerated. By the Black Hawk Down incident, the Gulf War, and Gulf War II/Iraqi Liberation, casualties are unacceptable. In fact, America can no longer allow deaths of foreign civilians, either. Hell, we don't even approve of killing the enemy, though they actually hope to die when fighting us.
posted by Chris at
12:11 PM
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