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Wednesday, August 08, 2007
John Stossel :: Townhall.com Columnist
Let Wisconsin Experiment with Socialized Medicine
by John Stossel
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The WSJ writes about a "last line of defense against" Healthy Wisconsin, but I say, let Wisconsin try it! Their suffering will be for the greater good.

As I interview people for my health-care TV special scheduled to run on ABC this September, I'm struck by how many hate the current semi-free-market system America has now. I say "semi" because it's not a free market when about half the health-care bill is funded by government. But it's still better than socialism. It allows for innovation like the creation of better drugs, pain-relieving joint replacements, artificial hearts, LASIK eye surgery, and who-knows-what-else that may reduce pain and extend my life.

Socialism will kill that, but people seem to like socialism, at least when it's sold as free stuff from politicians. Wisconsin's Capital Times reports that "two-thirds of Wisconsin residents support the Democratic plan -- even when presented with opponents' arguments that it would be a 'job killer' that could lead to higher taxes. Said Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, one of the plan's sponsors, 'Everything we have heard [against the plan], we put in the poll. And it still comes back at 67 percent approval.'"

That's why America needs "Healthy Wisconsin." The fall of the Soviet Union deprived us of the biggest example of how socialism works. We need laboratories of failure to demonstrate what socialism is like. All we have now is Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, the U.S. Post Office, and state motor-vehicle departments.

It's not enough. Wisconsin can show the other 49 states what "universal" coverage is like.

I feel bad for the people in Wisconsin. They already suffer from little job creation, and the Packers aren't winning, but it's better to experiment with one state than all of America.

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About The Author
John Stossel blogs at http://blogs.abcnews.com/johnstossel/ is an award-winning news correspondent and author of Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel--Why Everything You Know is Wrong.
 
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We may have to do something like this...
...eventually.

Within the next ten to twenty years, via genetic screening, we'll be able to determine - ahead of time - the vast majority of the maladies that will eventually afflict us. We'll almost have individualized calendars of what's going to befall us, physical injuries (from accidents and so on) excepted.

Needless to say, such a situation will make private insurance a losing proposition, because only those individuals who are virtually certain to NEED private health insurance are going to buy it. Because the insurance industry is necessarily based on uncertainty and pooled risk, it would be destroyed under this scenario.

The consequence, then, is that we will HAVE to put in place some kind of scheme for tax-subsidized medicine; otherwise, only those who are well-heeled enough to afford the extortionate costs of unsubsized health care will be able to receive treatment.

Of course, Wisconsin is not going about it optimally.

Ashwan
When socialism is mentioned it is still just as much of a losing proposition now as it has always been. The US is not geared to accept socialism primarily because it takes away so much of your free choice and gives so much power to the government. These are the antithesis of what our country was founded for.
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