Quote:
Originally Posted by finnbow
I agree completely with the idea of single-payer health insurance, though it actually doesn't really adhere that strongly to soc!alist principles IMO (i.e., doctors, hospitals and labs don't work for the state or a publicly owned collective). In fact, if there's any hope for a single-payer system, trying to sell it as inspired by soc!alist principles is a sure-fire way to ensure it never happens.
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Actually, in some of socialized medical systems, doctors do indeed work for the government. There's the VA, Military Health System and Britain's National Health Service where some doctors work directly for the gummint. Other systems, like "single payer" are quasi socializt because, though private doctors and non-government hospitals provide the care, the government sets standards for that care and pays the bills.
It's one thing to have a system of socialized medicine and another to sell it as such. We can quibble about how socializt is socializt but the ethos behind all such systems is decidedly socializt in nature.
John