XPost: alt.tv.pol-incorrect, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.democrats   
   XPost: alt.politics.usa, sci.med.diseases   
   From: NOT-SURE@idiocracy.gov   
      
   On 3/12/20 9:05 PM, Ubiquitous wrote:   
   > The media are selling coronavirus as the worst thing since the Black Death   
   > (mortality rate: 40–60 percent).  This allows them and Democrat politicians   
   > to make two arguments: one, that Trump is incompetent and, two, that   
   > socialized medicine is the answer.  They are wrong on both points, especially   
   > about socialized medicine.  Socialized medicine kills.   
   >   
   > Tom Elliott has put together a mind-boggling supercut of leftists stating   
   > that the coronavirus proves the need for socialized medicine:   
   >   
   > 	SUPERCUT: Surely socialism should solve #Coronavirus! 	   
   > pic.twitter.com/2wUsQTo3t3   
   >   
   > 	— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 11, 2020   
   > This is ignorance speaking.  Here are the facts:   
   >   
   > First, throughout the Cold War, Europe didn't have socialized medicine.  It   
   > had American-funded medicine because America subsidized Europe's defense   
   > budget.   
   >   
   > Second, people in socialized medicine countries don't have babies.  Europe   
   > has a negative growth rate.  A "pay it forward" medical system doesn't work   
   > when the bulk of the users are using (not funding) the system while the   
   > number of young people funding it shrinks.  Europe tried to fix this by   
   > importing cheap labor from Turkey, Africa, and the Middle East.  That's not   
   > working well.   
   >   
   > Third, socialized medicine doesn't offer care; it offers access.  Access   
   > without good outcomes is not medical care.  Scott Atlas's "The Worst Study   
   > Ever?" (which is available intermittently at Commentary) broke out the   
   > numbers:   
   >   
   > 	World Health Report 2000 was an intellectual fraud of historic   
   > 	consequence — a profoundly deceptive document that is only marginally   
   > 	a measure of health-care performance at all. The report's true   
   > 	achievement was to rank countries according to their alignment with   
   > 	a specific political and economic ideal — socialized medicine — and   
   > 	then claim it was an objective measure of "quality."   
   >   
   > 	[snip]   
   >   
   > 	The nature of the enterprise came more fully into view with WHO's   
   > 	introduction and explanation of the five weighted factors that made   
   > 	up its index. Those factors are "Health Level," which made up 25   
   > 	percent of "overall care"; "Health Distribution," which made up   
   > 	another 25 percent; "Responsiveness," accounting for 12.5 percent;   
   > 	"Responsiveness Distribution," at 12.5 percent; and "Financial   
   > 	Fairness," at 25 percent.   
   >   
   > 	The definitions of each factor reveal the ways in which scientific   
   > 	objectivity was a secondary consideration at best. What is   
   > 	"Responsiveness," for example? WHO defined it in part by calculating   
   > 	a nation's "respect for persons." How could it possibly quantify   
   > 	such a subjective notion? It did so through calculations of even   
   > 	more vague subconditions — "respect for dignity," "confidentiality,"   
   > 	and "autonomy."   
   >   
   > Fourth, Reggie Hamm's viral post about hospital care in China nails how the   
   > government has no incentive to provide decent care:   
   >   
   > 	I was witnessing the kind of maximum, almost brutal efficiency a   
   > 	society must develop when the state is the master and the individual   
   > 	is merely a subject. Why would a Communist country not have an   
   > 	effective FDA? Because who are you going to complain to if you get   
   > 	tainted food? The government? They don't answer to you. The press?   
   > 	They are owned by the government. And again, they don't answer to   
   > 	you.   
   >   
   > 	So what if you don't like the conditions in the hospital? Where   
   > 	else are you going to go? This hospital is the last (and only)   
   > 	stop. You can't opt for another place and then just pay out of   
   > 	your own pocket. The government has capped financial upward mobility.   
   > 	There is now "income equality." And that means nobody has the means   
   > 	to buy their way into a different (or better) situation. And even   
   > 	if you could, one doesn't exist. The state provides it all. You're   
   > 	stuck.   
   >   
   > 	[snip]   
   >   
   > 	Single payer also means single buyer. That means the dynamics of   
   > 	the market get eliminated. One of the natural checks-and-balances of   
   > 	finding a hot-shot surgeon willing to do the risky procedure or even   
   > 	just seek a second opinion, get chopped away little by little.   
   > 	Because now we're answering to the government. It isn't answering   
   > 	to us. After all, where are we gonna go? They've got us. And our   
   > 	cancer treatment or skin graft surgery or kidney stone blast is up   
   > 	to their red tape. Sure, we can get in the door for free. But we   
   > 	might die in there, waiting on someone with no incentive and who   
   > 	faces no recourse, to change our plasma bag.   
   >   
   > Fifth, the only way to control prices under socialized medicine is to deny   
   > care to society's "dead weight" — the old and sick.  You see that with   
   > Britain's Liverpool Care Pathway, which sent thousands of elderly patients to   
   > an early death.   
   >   
   > Sixth, Democrats are ignoring a salient point about the coronavirus: it   
   > started in a country with socialized medicine (China) and is having its worst   
   > effects in two other countries with socialized medicine: Iran and Italy.   
   > There's a bright, flashing message in that that American leftists refuse to   
   > read.   
   >   
   > Socialized medicine is not better medicine.  It's a chimera that American   
   > leftists like because they are completely ignorant about its brutal   
   > realities.   
   >   
   >   
   Look at where they have hot spots of the virus spreading, it's in   
   California and Washington State and New York, some of the most Socialist   
   places in America...   
      
   Socialism is incapable of solving all their problems...  it's better   
   when you have the Government and the people working together rather than   
   the Government pretending that they can do everything for everyone and   
   then wen they can't the people and society pay the price.   
      
      
      
      
   --   
   That's Karma   
      
   *Plan for the worst and hope for the best*   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)