...one of my pet peeves "socialized medicine",
I've been thinking about this lately, but wouldn't the VA and USPHS fit the definition of socialized medicine?
Oh yes without a doubt. The way I view this is VA benefits are a guarantee made for serving your country and was part of your original contract covering injuries mental or physical attained while in the Armed Forces... Or was caused by the service.
Tri-care is a program for those who are serving, as well as those who retired after serving 20 or more years service.
It's also a contract made upon enlistment for treatment either on-base facilities or at DOD's convenience off-base facilities.
It was originally promised to us old-timers tuition free, until death, but now co-pays,catastrophic caps involved outside of DOD facilities.
Medicare:
Remember you pay in most of your working years or until you reach a certain age or a certain amount paid in.
But Medicare has now become a catch-all for Obama care which is paid for by the taxpayer even though many will never pay in to support it.
This of course will limit care given due to cost and facilities, creating poor service, long lines, along with restricted care due to demand.
In every country I've read about... including Canada, Britain and Germany, along with France and the Netherlands costs go up, taxes go up, service goes down, and waiting periods for operations of any importance many times outlived the patient waiting for treatment or operations.
It seems that this president and the left-wingers and socialists who supported it thinks they can get around all these little problems created by socialized medicine.
While at the same time doctors start fleeing to countries where they can create a more profitable practice.
One of the very reasons why we have so many foreign practitioners practicing medicine in the United States today... which will surely change when demands outstrip facilities and doctors.
Very few doctors will want to spend many years in medical school... at a tremendous cost, just to graduate and earn controlled income by the state in the service of Medicare and Medicaid, which is socialized medicine.
The Democrats and this administration claims that this will never happen but whenever private enterprise and small businesses can no longer afford inflated cost of private insurance... the federal government will be forced into the business of a one care provider system, which was the original intent to begin with.
Some of the European countries are beginning to feel the stress of the weight of socialized government and are attempting to reintroduce capitalism and controlling runaway unions.
It's just a matter of time before the cost outweighs any benefits as was proven under Marxism, now what is called or considered socialism.
