alt.politics.gw-bush

Do we really want the government running our healtcare?
Do you want the government to decide if your elderly parents live or
die?

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/article/20070815/EDITORIAL/108150007/1013/editorial

John Stossel is right. Last week he wrote that the "Healthy Wisconsin"
scheme, passed in that state's Senate and offering supposedly "free"
socialized health care, is good for America because people apparently
need bad examples. As Mr. Stossel says, "We need laboratories of
failure to demonstrate what socialism is like. All we have now is
Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, the . Post Office, and state motor-
vehicle departments. It's not enough. Wisconsin can show the other 49
states what 'universal' [health] coverage is like. I feel bad for the
people in Wisconsin... but it's better to experiment with one state
than all of America."

More bad examples can be found in Europe. When the topic of health
care crops up I always think of my grandfather. He was very old - 91-
when he died. In his family, longevity was not uncommon. My
grandfather had never been ill. He had never needed medical treatment.
Upon reaching his 90s, however, he began to have a prostate problem
and had to go to the hospital for surgery. Like all Belgians,
throughout his professional life my grandfather had paid wage-related
contributions to cover health insurance. As he had never needed much
health care, he had been a net contributor to the system. Now was the
very first time he was going to claim something back.

My grandfather had his operation in May. In November he was dead. The
prostate operation had gone well, but the hospital administered an
antibiotic drug that caused complete deafness. Though there were
other, but costlier, treatments possible, the hospital gave this drug
to the old man. Hospital staff knew about the possible side effect,
but it did not strike them as an unreasonable and unjust thing to do.
A man who has already had 90 healthy years of his life surely has no
right to complain about deafness when some people get more seriously
ill or die at far younger ages.



When my grandfather left the hospital, he was completely deaf. But his
prostate problem had been cured. According to the clinic, the prostate
operation had been highly successful. As far as the Belgian health-
care statistics were concerned, my grandfather's treatment raised the
quality average. It also had been cheap. Statistics show that Belgium
has a high quality of health care that is relatively cheap, available
to all the country's inhabitants, and virtually free of charge for the
patients. It is the kind of health care that Americans, looking for
comparative statistics, would envy. My deaf grandfather, however, lost
his will to live. Six months after the operation, he was dead.

His predicament is not unique. Certain medical treatments or drugs are
no longer available to Europeans above a certain age. Studies of
kidney dialysis, for example, show that more than a fifth of dialysis
centers in Europe and almost half of those in England have refused to
treat patients over 65 years of age.

My grandfather's deafness was the side effect of an antibiotic that
was given to him because of budgetary constraints in a system
providing "free" health care. More expensive drugs and treatments with
fewer side effects are set aside for younger patients. Political
authorities, claiming to be the guardians of solidarity in society,
deem it less desirable for a young person to be deaf than for an old
one. Hence my grandfather, after having paid heavy wage-related
contributions as a young man to fulfill his solidarity with the sick
and elderly, had to pay the price of deafness to fulfill his
solidarity with the young.

In Europe, old people increasingly receive less care than young people
do. In the United States, ironically, the situation is the reverse.
Elderly Americans are entitled to universal health coverage via the
Medicare program. In America, the bulk of government health-care
expenditure goes to those over 65 years old, while in Europe most of
the government money is spent on those under 65. If European
governments continue this policy, soon euthanasia will be the price
that the solidarity principle of the European welfare states imposes
on the very old and the very sick. European doctors have already
warned about "economic euthanasia."

If Americans need bad examples in order to know what to avoid, then
Europe is a good place to learn from. America has now lost one of its
states to socialism. In Wisconsin there will soon be grandfathers
sharing the fate of my granddad.