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RED MENACE: The VA Hospital of Long Beach is a part of government-run, publicly-owned, taxpayer subsidized system of “socialized medicine” that serves millions of our nation’s veterans.
It typically isn’t my modus operandi to create blog posts in direct response to those posted here on Orange Juice by other contributors, but I couldn’t help but issue a reply to a recent article written by Geoff Willis.
I haven’t had the opportunity to peruse all of the contributions that Mr. Willis has made, but I get the impression his core political beliefs are quite a bit further to the right of my own, if I’m not deeply mistaken.
Nevertheless, what I find rather intriguing is Mr. Willis has posted a link to a list on a website which purportedly shows that most of the highly-ranked hospitals in the world are located in the United States of America.
According to him, it proves that “with 18 of the top 20 ranked hospitals in the world in the new 2011 survey, the United States shows that non-socialized medicine is alive and well, thank you very much.”
He further opines:
In addition, the United States claims 21 of the top 25 hospitals in the world and 33 of the top 50. Socialist and communist countries were completely shut out of the top 25 with only France breaking into the top 50. The Canadian and Cuban hospital systems, ballyhooed by Michael Moore and the left as shining examples of medical care, failed to place a single hospital in the top 50.
Although Mr. Willis condemns “socialized medicine,” he doesn’t seem to realize practically all the U.S. hospitals he praises depend on massive infusions of tax money to pay for research, medical care, and other expenses.
In fact, every one of them receives some kind of assistance from local, state, and federal governments–everything from no-interest loans to finance the construction of buildings to Medicare payments.
For example, I went to the University of Kansas Medical Center website, number 3 on the list, to find out exactly how much money their School of Medicine was receiving from the federal government for research.
According to page 8 of their latest annual report:
In 2010, the University of Kansas Medical Center surpassed $100 million in external research funding for the first time in its history. School of Medicine researchers were awarded more than 1,250 grants, totaling nearly $96.5 million. Almost $65 million of that total came from National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants. These higher numbers of grants and funding are attributable, in part, to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
In other words, about 67.3% of the money that their School of Medicine receives each year to conduct research comes from the NIH, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Another example is NYU Langone Medical Center, number 1 on the list, which boasts that more than 80% of funds their School of Medicine gets for research comes from–yeah, you guessed it–Uncle Sam.
According to page 17 of their latest annual report:
By the end of our fiscal year 2010, our baseline NIH funding had grown from $126.4 million to $138.1 million–a 9.3% increase from the previous year and a five-fold rate of increase compared to other medical schools around the country. We also benefited from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with an additonal $49.9 million in funding for scientific research.
Even more ironic is a number of hospitals on the list Willis touts as stellar examples of “non-socialized medicine” are in reality government-run systems serving tens of millions of people.
For example, number 11 is Navy Medicine–a health care operation owned and operated lock, stock, and barrel by the Department of Defense, an entity of the federal government, lest anybody here forgets.
Number 23 is the Tricare Military Health System, a single-payer like plan for current and retired military personnel, of which a big chunk of its business goes through the Veterans Health Administration.
According to a 2007 report released by the Congressional Budget Office, the VHA is a government-run, publicly-owned, taxpayer subsidized system of “socialized medicine” consisting of:
153 medical centers, 882 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics, 207 Vet Centers, 136 nursing homes, 45 residential rehabilitation treatment programs, and 92 comprehensive home-based care programs — all providing medical and related services to eligible veterans. Those facilities provide inpatient hospital care, outpatient care, laboratory services, pharmaceutical dispensing, rehabilitation for a variety of disabilities and conditions, mental health counseling, and custodial care. VHA facilities employ about 200,000 full-time equivalent employees, including over 13,000 physicians and nearly 55,000 nurses.
I do not have the time to go into even further detail about all the taxpayer subsidies the top U.S. hospitals on the list are dependent on–other than perhaps noting many are part of universities funded by state governments.
But I must admit I’m somewhat amused that Mr. Willis seems to be genuinely astonished that a few hospitals from Taiwan–a tiny island nation in Southeast Asia–have ended up being ranked quite high.
That shouldn’t be of any surprise to him given the quality of health care in Taiwan has improved over the years ever since that country adopted–get ready, folks–a Canadian-style single-payer system in 1995.
The “nanny state” is alive and well and whether Mr. Willis likes it or not, it is because of socialism, albeit in a grossly distorted form, that explains why we have one of the most advanced health care systems in the world.
Duane. I think I pointed that out to Geoff yesterday when I cited a number of these US hospitals receive Federal funds or are run by government agencies. Good to know that I was not the only one that caught this and am glad that you confirmed that I was not seeing things.
My biggest concern with a Federal single payer system is that we have 16 states in the union along with the District of Columbia that have legalized medical marijuana. Since marijuana is listed as a Schedule I drug according to the Federal Government (which states that there is no medicinal benefit…HA!), what plans do these single payer adovcates have to ensure that MMJ patients such as myself will continue to receive safe access to the medicine of our choosing? I asked one of the “Mad as Hell Doctors” this question last fall and all I got was this dumb look which was interpreted as “oh, the horror. you smoke weed?” Yeah, I do bucko because I don’t like the side effects of Vicodin, Soma and the other poisons that your Big Pharma whores like to peddle. Never had a hangover or nasty side after vaporizing cannabis outside of getting a wee bit high and hungry.
I say end the Drug War first and legalize marijuana nationwide before trying to implement a system like this. Otherwise you are in for a nasty legal mess trying to implement a program like this in various states where medical MJ is recognized as a valid medical treatment.
> Duane. I think I pointed that out to Geoff yesterday when
> I cited a number of these US hospitals receive Federal funds
> or are run by government agencies. Good to know that I was
> not the only one that caught this and am glad that you
> confirmed that I was not seeing things.
I don’t recall where I read it, but I remember seeing a statistic which estimated that approximately 60% of every dollar spent on health care in the United States comes from the government. (i.e., “taxpayers”)
> My biggest concern with a Federal single payer system is that
> we have 16 states in the union along with the District of Columbia
> that have legalized medical marijuana. Since marijuana is listed
> as a Schedule I drug according to the Federal Government (which
> states that there is no medicinal benefit…HA!), what plans do
> these single payer adovcates have to ensure that MMJ patients
> such as myself will continue to receive safe access to the
> medicine of our choosing? I asked one of the “Mad as Hell Doctors”
> this question last fall and all I got was this dumb look which was
> interpreted as “oh, the horror. you smoke weed?” Yeah, I do
> bucko because I don’t like the side effects of Vicodin, Soma and
> the other poisons that your Big Pharma whores like to peddle.
> Never had a hangover or nasty side after vaporizing cannabis
> outside of getting a wee bit high and hungry.
I seriously doubt that we’ll see a single-payer health care system at the federal level anytime soon, but you raise a valid point about the influence that big pharmaceutical companies have on government policies in determining what is an acceptable form of medication.
I’ve always been of the opinion people should be allowed some personal discretion at choosing remedies for various ailments they suffer from because sometimes the reason why a drug is a drug is because it makes huge profits for big pharmaceutical companies.
And in more cases than not, you see that certain members of Congress or the presidential cabinet sit on the boards of these pharmaceutical companies and pressure the FDA to give their stamp of approval quickly on a drug or food additive.
Want an example? Google Donald Rumsfeld and aspartame. Or better yet, here’s a story that’s not from Fox News http://www.newswithviews.com/NWVexclusive/exclusive15.htm
You have a lot of nerve Duane, bringing up facts and figures, ugh.
What a load of poop! Nothing connected with socialism works, that is why Europe is in trouble, but the dumb WHITE liberals want to believe it does because most of them will be going private. Just like they believe in public education for the rest of us!
Hope and change is failing and what conservative did not know that!
> What a load of poop! Nothing connected with socialism works, that
> is why Europe is in trouble, but the dumb WHITE liberals want to
> believe it does because most of them will be going private. Just like
> they believe in public education for the rest of us!
You can hallucinate all you want, but pretty much all the top U.S. hospitals on the list that Geoff Willis provided are either partially or wholly dependent on mass infusions of taxpayer money to survive.
If this massive state support–including ownership–of the health care system were to suddenly evaporate, our network of hospitals and clinics would offer services comparable to that of Haiti or Bangladesh.
As for socialism, many Americans–including right-wingers like yourself–support it and don’t even know it because the forms of it that have emerged in the U.S. are grossly distorted compared to European models.
Here in Anaheim where I live, the City owns a utility which provides electricity at a cost far below that of which people have to pay for the same energy from Southern California Edison, a private corporation.
A major reason why our electricity is so cheap compared to Edison is that it is a government-run, publicly-owned operation run for the benefit of the residents of Anaheim, not Wall Street investment bankers.
In the late 1990s, there was an effort led by our former Mayor, Curt Pringle, then-lobbyist for the now defunct Enron Corporation, to have the latter takeover Anaheim’s public utility and run it like a for-profit business.
Some of the biggest opponents to this scheme to privatize Anaheim’s public utility were Republican businessmen and homeowners who rightfully feared that their electrical rates would skyrocket after Enron took it over.
Does socialism–or in this case, municipal socialism–work? You bet it does. It works very well. Just ask the Republicans here in Anaheim who fought tooth-and-nail against efforts by Enron to seize control of it.
And note Anaheim’s public utility–technically a socialistic enterprise–still exists and is offering cheap electricity to its residents. But Enron has long since vanished from the face of earth. So much for “free enterprise.”
Oh, I know all about massive infusion of taxpayer money into hospitals…Cal optima, massively funds CHOC, St. Josephs.. The common factor is the need for the third world poor to get the federal dollars. Happy poor and a very happy 1,000,000 a year Kim Cripe CFO CHOC!
I can tell you that I in no way support socialism, but alas the left wing nuts like you keep stealing my money so you can fund your friends though socialism with a capitalistic twist!
Cuba…fidal Castro stated ” Socialism does NOT work and never will”. NO SHIT!
Again it is only left wing nut cases who have NO idea what socialism is, wants it, and people like myself flee socialist countries because WE do know what its like! But as we have all seen from the idiocy of the left, they just keep hoping that it will work and it does not!
Some really irrational and obscure talking points there. You serve your corporate masters very well, and they depend on the likes of you to proclaim the suffering of the very rich. Good job, madam.
On top of all this, the Geoff Willis article that inspired this Duane Roberts riposte was completely mistaken: That was not a list of the 20 best hospitals at all, but just a list of the 20 hospitals that had the most “web presence.” Hat tip to commenter WB on the other thread: http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2011/07/18-of-worlds-top-20-hospitals-are-in-u-s/comment-page-1/#comment-166555
That’s the second time in the last couple weeks he’s pulled this sort of thing. Remember this disingenuous (and inaccurate) gem…
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2011/06/new-polls-show-obama-in-trouble/
The credibility factor is sinking quickly.