Anna Ebeling Quote

“Let us remind ourselves that in the Soviet Union the road to medical-care hell was paved with the same good intentions. ... At the end of the 20th century, Russia was infamous for having one of the worst health-care systems in the world.”

~ Anna Ebeling

Socialized Health Care: The Communist Dream and the Soviet Reality, December 19, 2008
http://www.fee.org/library/detail/socialized-health-care-the-communist-dream-and-the-soviet-reality/

Ratings and Comments


Mike, Norwalk

Ahhh yes, Mr. Obamunist Goodwrench the assassin, along with his occupying statist theocracy, inflicting a once free people with death panels, and otherwise canonized hell.

jim k, Austin, Tx

Does anything going on in Washigton now come to mind ? I thought it would.

J Carlton, Calgary

Any aspect of our lives rendered to the control of "bureaucracy"...especially Government bureaucracy is an aspect of life we lose control of on a personal level. We lose the opportunity to choose. Mind you...with Government cooperation, the present medical insurance system in the United States is almost as corrupt...so what to do?

Bruski, naples FL

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions!"

We are well on the way. Just look at how our leadership in life expectancy has fallen to new lows.

Patrick Henry, Red Hill

Objectively, there is no one, there is nothing, that pharisaic ideologues are not prepared to sacrifice on the altars before which they genuflect in worshipful idolization of their psychotically highly idealized self concepts.

Nominally, they intend to do good.
Ultimately, they do do very well for themselves, indeed.

TheMANwithNoName, Waterflow, NM

"Let us remind ourselves that in Cuba the road to medical-care hell was paved with the same good intentions. ... At the end of the 20th century, Cuba was infamous for having one of the best health-care systems in the world."
The problem in Russia was inept bureaucracy. The problem in the US is politicians who want to strengthen the profits of the established medical/insurance industry. The problems have nothing to do with the merits of free health care for all.

Robert, Somewhere in the USA

The American health system is riddle with corruption just like our government and just as ineffective. The US health system ranks one of the worse in the West - I think about number 27 Even Thailand has a better health system. The French state run health system is probably one of the best in the world. followed by Ireland and Sweden. I France my ER bill was $125 My friend in Thailand had a bad rash and was seen in a Bangkok hospital the same day he walk in and by a dermatologist, the bill $140 and that included his medications. The Health care system in the US is ONLY for the rich and those who have health insurance through their employment. Please do your home work before commenting...

E Archer, NYC

US health care is a racket to protect the pharmaceutical hold on the medical industry. The AMA is a corporate monopoly that has managed to criminalize any health care service that is not beholden to their union. As a result, alternatives to 'cut, poison, burn' are ILLEGAL and will result in the loss of licenses of physicians who merely recommend any modality that is not 'approved' by the AMA, a private organization. Yet if a non-licensed person provides these services, they can be fined and imprisoned. An apple grower may not even state that apples are good for you -- because that would make them a drug (I guess because only drugs are good for you.)

US health care is so expensive because too many people have their hands in the pie. For every $1 Medicare spends, at least 50% of it goes to administration before it even gets to the health care provider. Insurance companies have to make a profit, hospitals have to make a profit, drug companies make a HUGE profit, government bureaucrats have to be paid, oh, and the patient needs health care. Like government schools where employing people is the primary goal rather than educating students, government run health care is about distributing the profits more than the actual health care.

All 'socialized medicine' is not the same. What we are talking about is the insurance and the medical care monopolies that write legislation to require citizens to be treated and governments to pay for it. Yes, you MUST have health care, whether you want it or not. Frankly, most of the folks I know that have been treated by this system, end up on medication for life with many health complications to follow until eventual death -- and medical costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's like treating scurvy with chemotherapy -- commercial medicine is still in the dark ages because actual cures are competition! And illegal...

You can damn well bet that Cuban oncologists do not prescribe $250,000 radiation and chemotherapy treatments -- they most likely prescribe cheaper protocols. IN fact, people go to Mexico and Germany for alternative cancer treatment centers with much higher cure rates -- these centers are illegal in the US. Look no further than the AMA for the high cost of medicine. Without a free market of medical services, the cost will ever rise.

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