[Mormon Red Death]

Here are my reasons why NHI (National Health Insurance) is not something Americans want

1. Its immoral.-

Would the government ever decide how much one can charge in any other business? What if the government decided the computer industry was essential to the rights of Americans and forced apple and microsoft to sell their products at the price the government demanded. Obviously people would never go for that but with Healthcare you have doctors and hospitals that would be forced by law to have prices what the government decided.

2. Its would perpetuate the inefficiencies that are already evident in the half government half market model we have today (Health care in america is not a free market its the most regulated industry in the USA) -

For example, Downtown detroit has been shrinking for years and the hospitals down there want to shift some of their business to the growing suburbs. To do this one must fill out a huge licensure process with the state that will take years to make the move (Certificate of Need). Can you imagine if a bank was in downtown detroit and did an analysis that they could get better customers in the suburbs but the state of michigan forced them to stay downtown because they thought the need was better down there?

3. Inefficiencies compounded cont -

Health care would become a game of favors and a "who has the best lobbyist"
not who is the most efficient and best run. This is good if you are John Haddow but terrible for everyone else You already see evidences of this . In detroit the Henry Ford Health system (HFHS) wanted to open a hospital and move beds to a rich suburb. so did St. Johns (SJHS) and so did the Detroit Medical Center (DMC). HFHS had the best lobbiest (must have been haddow)and was permitted to open up a 300 bed hospital right only 5 miles from Beaumont hospital which is a 1000 bed hospital (1000 bed hospitals are the biggest kind like the university systems). Beaumont then wanted to move some of its beds to another growing area but was denied (as was DMC) due to it not receiving authority from the state.

4. Rationing health care -
too blue can spin it all he wants but Canada rations health care. The government decides when it is appropriate for you to have surgery. What this does is cause a nice black market. People who can afford surgery but are on a list will just go to somewhere that will take their money. Poor people will be worse off. India right now has an emerging market of medical tourism. People from Europe go there for surgery because they are US trained doctors working in lavious suites. I know it was worth 4 million a year for windsor Canada patients to come over and self pay for surgeries at the hospital I used to work at. I can only imagine the windfall buffalo hospitals get from toronto.

5. Moral Hazard -

this is an insurance concept that if you have insurance you will use it. for example, everyone will go to the doctor for every little ailment. you think getting into the doctor is hard now... just wait