Welcome back Mr. X -- Duke Doggie's "DEEP DOO-DOO"

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Subject: Welcome back Mr. X

Author:
James M

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Date Posted: Fri, February 22, 2008 3:37:14
In reply to: Mr. X 's message, "Does the free market always work great? No. Does the government do insurance better than evil private industry with an evil profit incentive? HECK NO!!!" on Wed, February 20, 2008 12:00:15

It is good to have civil discourse with someone offering opposing views again.

I was looking at how the health system in the UK has benefited its people and the country. I should have taken into account the role of US government in such a programme. USA is a much bigger country than those in the United Kingdom put together and this scale may make rash changes hard to implement successfully across the board.

Also, when the British national health service was proposed, all leading parties backed its concept and its early proposals were drafted by a coalition government of parties both right and left. This had the advantage of allowing stability to a long term project. Perhaps it might have been better to have implemented such a system when it was more in line with Republican ideals years ago.

The free market does give incentive for efficiency in such as procurement that does not always quite pan out with a government body. Good conscientious management is the key to success

When there are fears on how well government agencies would run such a system then this has also to be taken into account.

If your country has not had much success in implementing successful governmental bodies then I can understand it would be a cause for concern.

I do not know the specific relating to the four examples you gave but I shall study them. I had a basic understanding that, with the Walter Reed and other VA hospitals, there had been underfunding and that failure to respond to the crisis and fully plan for the expected increase in use of their services. With the current government appointing so many unaccredited-in-the-field directors and heads for various agencies, I can understand further concern in the event that such a government should come back after the next one.

With so much importance resting on such roles, perhaps future governments would ensure that the right people are hired. The failure to plan ahead on any sort of scale has been a very big criticism of the current US administration. UK ministers were pulling their hair out when they learnt that Tony Blair had not been supplied with a long-term post-war invasion of Iraq when the importance and likely success of such planning had been established years ago by the US with the Marshall Plan for Europe. This and the appointment of Mr Brown of FEMA has reflected badly on the capabilities of the US government at looking after even their own people let alone the people of other nations. But perhaps it has been a wake up call for people with ability to come forward and enter government to replace those that have failed its citizens.

Perhaps if a national health service was implemented, the people might not even be willing to vote in a Republican administration for a long long time knowing how capable they may at allowing it to fail.

I shall look at the other cases in time.

All the best.

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