Why is socialized medicine a bad thing for America? Why is it a bad idea to put government in charge of people's healthcare?
Ronald Reagan warned Americans about socialized medicine in the 1960s. He warned that it was one of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism. It's very easy, he warned, to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. However, turning over control of one's healthcare to a government entity delivers a severe blow to individual freedom.
In this four-part series, we'll explore the history of healthcare in America and why big government is never the answer.
Listen to the full series:
Healthcare Part I: Ben Franklin & Bolshevism
Ben Franklin raised private funds to open the first American hospital. He believed local communities held the responsibility for funding and managing their local resources. He did not petition the King of England for monies to build a hospital. When the government is involved in the cost of something, it always ends up controlling every other aspect.
Healthcare Part II: The European Model
For decades and decades, progressives liberals have lifted up European socialized medicine as the model to which America should aspire. This, in spite of the dismal facts about the effectiveness of nationalized health care. According to European parliament member Daniel Hannan, people are terrified of entering government-run hospitals in England, where 7,000 people died in one year from afflictions picked up in hospitals. Those with prostate cancer are four times as likely to die as their counterparts in the U.S. The survival rate for diseases like breast cancer, heart disease and stroke is a quarter of what it is in the U.S. There's a reason why our forefathers left the European continent: Freedom. Free market principles and choices translate into higher quality care.
Healthcare Part III: Economic Impact
The United Nations rates 36 countries as having superior healthcare systems to the United States, including Syria, Cypress, Costa Rica, Chile, Columbia, Iceland and Greece. Why? Because free stuff is always better than quality, accessible medical care, right? Take a look at the facts, though, and the crushing taxation required to support nationalized healthcare delivers a severe blow to a country's economy. What good are free services if they collapse your economy and country?
Healthcare Part IV: The Lie of the Year
With the passage of Obamacare, Americans were forced to purchase something --- for the first time in history --- in order to be in good standing with the government. Moreover, it wasn't an honestly brokered deal. Obamacare, pushed through Congress without proper evaluation or support from the American people, was based on a lie. The president stated over and over that people could keep their current plan and doctor once his sweeping healthcare reform passed. In reality, somewhere between four and seven million Americans lost their plan and/or preferred doctor. Obama promised that families would see their premiums reduced by up to $2,500 per year. Instead, the opposite happened, and rates rose an average of $2,500 per family. Even the liberal fact-check site PolitiFact called it The Lie of the Year. In 2016, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association reported that new enrollees under Obamacare experienced medical costs 22 percent higher than through their employers. Additionally, The New York Times reported that costs were expected to rise another 10 percent or more throughout 2017.
Listen to all serials at glennbeck.com/serials.
