On Universal Healthcare.

In an earlier post [The Left Attacks Obama.] I commented on an article from truthdig.com written by Chris Hedges who argues that he and his fellow Leftists owe an apology to Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney for the ill treatment they received from Obama supporters. Hedges claims that Obama has proven himself to be another George W. Bush; Obama is not, he believes, a socialist.

At the end of the post, I wrote,
"Unfortunately, Hedges does not describe his vision of the ideal health care system for the U.S.. If, as he says, Obama is no Socialist and Socialism is what Hedges wants, I'm curious to see what the American Health Care System à la Socialism would look like."

Well, after a bit of web surfing, I found a number of socialist websites that define a socialist health care system quite well.

On their website, the the Socialist Party USA advocates "...a vision of, and program for, free and comprehensive health care for all ...." The Socialist Party USA demands universal coverage using salaried doctors and health care workers paid for, of course by "revenue derived from a steeply graduated income tax".

Likewise, Socialistworker.org want - not a public option - but single payer (government) guaranteed health care.

While advocating universal health care, the Socialist Central Committee has a quite different approach, believing that publicly funded health care should be paid for on the county level much like fire and police protection, education and libraries, and state courts.

The common thread that unites these groups is their insistence that universal health care can be paid for by taking money from the "rich".

The first hole I see in this Utopian scheme is the idea of "a steeply graduated income tax" - " heavily taxing the rich to help the poor" - whatever euphemism you care to use -. If we were to abandon capitalism for socialism, I'd have to ask "where would these rich people come from? " Without profit, wealth would vanish almost overnight.

" Salaried doctors and health care workers? " Although many doctors and nurses are caring people who truly want to help their fellow man, most would not do what they do if the money wasn't as good. High quality doctors and nurses are not going to work for low wages. Should a socialist, universal health care system take over, you can look forward to doctors retiring in droves.

Contrary to what socialists would have us believe ["What people in this country need is health care. It is their right as human beings. The only way to secure this right is to place the health care system in public hands–-to remove the profit-motive from the system."] removing the profit-motive from the system will destroy the system. People rightfully expect and demand to be properly compensated for their work. Health care workers are no different.

Anyone who seriously believes that socialism is the answer to our problems should take a few minutes and read this article by James V. Schall, S. J. Confessions of a Practicing 'Socialist'.