Expert Reveals Absence of Public Option Doesn’t Erase Danger of Socialization of Medicine
Taking a page out of Yogi Berra, Congressional leaders are worried that it ain’t over ’til it’s over.
U.S. Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-Minnesota) has been trying to rally her conservative base, warning them that even though the much-debated public option has been killed in the Senate version of the reform bill, the seeds of socialism still exist in the bill – and in fact, in every major move made by the administration of President Barack Obama.
“The number one thing is to fight right now the government takeover of our economy,” Rep. Bachmann said, quoting an Arizona State University economist who calculated the U.S. government now owns 30 percent of the economy as a result of 2009’s financial market bailouts. “Now if President Obama gets his way with healthcare, that’s an additional 18 percent of the economy. It isn’t within our lifetime that we’ve gone to socialism. It’s within 18 months!”
The end result would take the healthcare industry from bad to worse, according to David Mitchel, a healthcare industry expert and marketing consultant for healthcare companies.
“As someone who works with medical practitioners on the front lines of the medical industry, I am very familiar with the way that practitioners feel about the proposed changes,” said Mitchel, VP of Norton Mitchel Marketing (www.nortonmitchel.com). “Many observers believe that the proposed changes are part of a socialistic economic policy. I’ve observed the ways in which countries that have adopted socialistic economic policies have performed economically. The results have been devastating, and we would be foolish if we didn’t learn from their failures.”
He cited Chile as a prime example of how socialistic policies led to chaos, and how a free market economy revived the country’s finances.
“Chile democratically elected a socialist leader in 1970, and then had a coup in 1973 to replace the socialist leader,” he said. “After the 1973 coup, the new regime enacted free market reforms, leading to Chile becoming the most prosperous economy in Latin America. It’s nothing we don’t already know in America. A free market typically solves its own problems. It’s not always orderly and it’s not always quick, but the market must be allowed to stay free in order to prevent the dangers of an overall economic collapse. Every major superpower that was socialist by design has fallen. We just recently celebrated the fall of the Berlin wall, a reminder of the ending of the Cold War, which ended not because we defeated the USSR with our military might, or because of a decisive naval battle. The government fell because they couldn’t feed their people, anymore. Is this the fate we want for the U.S.?”
Mitchel’s concerns, however, go beyond history.
“Medical practitioners across disciplines generally oppose healthcare reform as they feel it will negatively impact their ability to operate a successful practice both from a financial standpoint and in their ability to treat patients,” he said. “It’s important to understand that protecting their business interests is not contrary to protecting the interests of consumers. If medical practitioners can’t earn a living in their fields because of rising costs, they’ll simply close up shop, resulting in fewer choices and even higher prices for consumers and insurance companies. When supply is low and demand is high, prices soar. Now, many assert that the proposed changes in health care are aligned with a socialistic economic policy, and they aren’t wrong.”
He cautioned Americans to heed Rep. Bachmann’s warning.
“The House bill still contains the public option, while the Senate bill does not,” he said. “They are going to try to hammer out a compromise, and you can bet the liberal House Democrats are going to try to shoehorn some level of public option – whether it is through Medicare or another program – into the bill. Even if that measure is defeated, there are still worries of healthcare rationing, a primary symptom of socialist policies, as a result of the bill. Americans need to stay vigilant, and make their voices heard.”
About David Mitchel
David Mitchel, VP of Marketing for marketing consulting firm Norton Mitchel Marketing, holds an MBA in Global Management, and has experience in healthcare marketing and cross-cultural business interactions, with particular emphasis on Latin America.
