There is an unfortunate push in our country to duplicate mistakes made by other countries. This push seems to have become a focal point of the modern Democratic Party platform, which would institute socialism if it could. Democrats are joined by some liberal Republicans in their quest to effectively turn our nation into the U.S.S.A. (United Socialist States of America.)

Healthcare is possibly the most obvious target of the movement as is evidenced by the current presidential race and the specter of Hillary Care. It is inconceivable to a thoughtful person that the bloated bureaucracy that manages the postal service and the IRS should be controlling healthcare, yet that is the goal of the Democrats. It is hard to determine the root cause of the problem because we cannot know if Democratic politicians lust for power overrides common sense or if the Democratic politicians believe that any citizen that is not a Democratic politician is simply too ignorant to make his or her own decisions.

The problems that are likely to be caused by the implementation of the socialist system of healthcare extend beyond the normal Democratic issues of wealth redistribution and the creation of dependant classes. One also has to wonder what affect the new system would have on the John Edwards style predatory attorneys, who make their fortunes exploiting medical tragedies and in fact are a main cause for the high cost of healthcare. Madison County, itself is infamous for the lawsuits and astronomical malpractice insurance costs that have driven physicians from the area. Of course Madison County is a Democratic stronghold so the idea of socialized medicine is probably popular there (the lawyers may suffer but the number of government dependents will grow.)

The proponents of socialized medicine refuse to admit that costs cannot be controlled in a vacuum. I have heard lies being told about improving care without raising costs. One of the socialists running for the Democratic nomination was touting a plan to reduce the patient to caregiver ratio… without raising costs or sacrificing care. This should be enough to disqualify these morons from holding any public office, but people still vote for them.

If the number of nurses is to increase to lower the ratio, then their pay must decrease or the cost must increase. The alternative would be for the number of patients to decrease, which sounds impossible until you realize how other socialized medicine systems operate. The infamous waits for tests and surgeries in Canada are perfect and frightening examples of reducing the number of patients.

This is not to say that some will not realize certain benefits if our nation implements socialized medicine. The Democrats will have grown the dependent class and the environmentalist nuts that view humans as a cancer to the earth will enjoy the affects of people dying while waiting for treatment. The rest of us will have to get used to hospitals and doctors’ offices being run like the DMV and we will have to expect that medical advancements will occur at a much slower pace, if at all. The government regulation of any industry removes incentive for innovation so why not apply it to healthcare?