Flu shots and Big Government Health Care

The political ads tell me to fear big government health care but the sound bites are so brief and none are specific. I didn't know what to fear so I did a little research on big government health programs and here is what I found.

As I expected, the big government programs covered virtually all their citizens while the U.S. system leaves about 15% with no coverage and many others with minimal or inadequate coverage. Unlike our decentralized private enterprise system, the centralized big government health care systems have plenty of flu vaccines for everyone.

With fewer people covered, I thought our system might cost less but I was surprised to find that was not true. Our system is the most expensive on the planet with expenses increasing faster than the big government systems. Since big government systems are financed by taxes, citizens in those countries pay higher tax rates but they do not have to pay health insurance premiums and they have minimal co-pay or out of pocket expenses.

Also surprising was that big government health care leads to lower mortality rates and longer life expectancies. U.S. infant mortality is among the highest for industrial nations, nearly twice the infant death rate of nations with big government health care systems. And their people live several years longer than we do in the U.S.

Contrary to what I'd been led to believe, both the citizens and health professionals in big government systems prefer their system to ours. Sure there are stories of someone having to wait for cosmetic surgery or a doctor disgruntled at not making the big bucks U.S. doctors make, but neither patients nor health providers are demanding a change to the system. In fact, international satisfaction surveys find that both patients and health providers in big government programs are more satisfied with their system than U.S. patients and health care providers are with our system.

I hope this summary of the differences helps. Now when you see those ads telling you to fear big government health care you will understand why and vote accordingly.