Despite the fact that America has an inferior health care system when compared to more ‘civilized’ countries that have socialized medicine, 3 Americans are sharing this year’s Nobel Prize for medicine. Pretty good for the 37^th ranked health care system by the World Health Organization.   

President Obama and the left in this country constantly harp on how bad the US health care system is. It can’t be that bad if our medical scientists are winning Nobel Prizes. Liberals bash our private sector health care system because it is profit driven; what they fail to realize is profit provides incentives for American health care companies to provide better care.

What medical advancements have been made in any of the 3^rd world countries ranked ahead of the US in the WHO study? At least Cuba was ranked behind the US, they were 39^th! Are you kidding me? The WHO expects us to believe that Castro’s Cuba provides medical care on par with the United States of America! Who runs WHO, Michael Moore? There is a reason people from all over the world come to the US for medical treatment. Its better! Simple as that, the US system of health care, while not perfect, is the best in the world and utopian liberals want to radically alter it.

What is so bad about profit? Profit is a good thing. People earn money in exchange for services rendered; what is wrong with earning more money for better service? A monetary incentive motivates health care providers to provide great medical care. In the US, the best providers profit because Americans are free to choose their health care providers and when given a choice people will choose the best possible provider for them. Without an incentive there would be no reason for health care providers to provide Americans with the best health care. The same principal holds true for drug companies. Drug companies not only use profit as an incentive, they use profits to fund research and development of new drugs that will ultimately save lives.

The main knock on the US health care system is the cost. Yes, the cost is high but you get what you pay for. Good health care costs money, free health care costs lives. ‘If it’s free, there’s a line’, with so called free health care there is always a line. Just look at the Canadian and British health care systems where 6 month waiting lists to see doctors are not uncommon. One reason the lines are so long is that people are not personally responsible for the cost of treatment; the cost is paid for by the population collectively. Because health care is essentially free, people use the health care system more, thus creating artificial demand.

Socialized medicine is a lot like people that leave out a bowl of candy on their front porch on Halloween, instead of answering the door and the patients are like the trick-or-treaters that empty the entire bowl of candy into their pillow cases. The trick-or-treaters don’t really need or want that much candy but it’s free; so why not take it?

Health care in the US could be made more affordable by legislating tort reform for malpractice lawsuits or by allowing consumers purchase medical insurance outside of their home state to drive competition. Instead, the President and Congress want to do away with free market medicine, the same system that has made the US the worldwide leader in medicine. If you really believe that Cuba has a comparable health care system, then support socialized medicine. But you should ask yourself, how many Cubans are winning the Nobel Prize for medicine?