Doctors and Socialized Healthcare

By Lee Wilson

I have always thought about socialized medicine from a consumer/patient/taxpayer's point of view. Lee Wilson recently did an impromptu interview with his doctor that's opened my eyes to an even more detrimental aspect of a government run health care system.

He started by telling me that if the government took control of the United States with system like Canada or the UK that there could only be a certain number of medical students (or dental, chiropractic, etc.) per year based on the perceived need. The government would choose who could go to medical school and force the others to pursue an alternate career or wait another year to see if the government would allow them to go to school (sounding like communism yet?).

He paused for a minute and said, "Doesn't sound much like the American dream, does it?" He mentioned that Canadian students who had dreamed of being doctors all their lives were coming to the United States to be educated because their government only allowed a certain number. And it wasn't the smartest and brightest that they allowed it. It was a selection similar to affirmative action where they picked a certain number of this color, gender, etc. instead of just taking the top x percent in terms of academics. So if your child is dreaming of being a doctor because he wants to help people...you'd better hope the government will allow him to go to school to learn how. If the U.S. adopts the Canadian/UK system, there's no where else he can go. The U.S. is the last free country in terms of pursuing that dream.

He went on to say that the government would also determine how many doctors were allowed to practice in a certain area. And once that number had been met, no more doctors would be allowed to practice. So current doctors, if they didn't make the magic number (again, not based on performance but on the PC obsession of an affirmative action type of approach), would have to move to where they were allowed to practice. And a certain percentage will have to stop practicing completely because the government decides how many are needed. So if you've been a doctor all your life and the government says the country doesn't need you, I guess you have to find another career.

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