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First of all, I am not for or against socialism.  Socialism is sometimes good, and sometimes not so good.  Other times it can be downright bad.  An example of the good is the US Postal Service.  For an insignificant amount of money, you can drop something in a mailbox and have it hand-delivered anywhere in the world within a few days.  If I were to go into the same business with maybe ten employees, I would have to charge hundreds or thousands of dollars for the same service.  The Postal Service is an example of a necessary service that works well despite being socialized.  Some countries have nationalized their energy businesses and the results have almost always manifested in drastically reduced energy costs for the population.  As for the really bad things to socialize, primary is media controlled by government, which almost always leads to Orwellian propaganda and is therefore unthinkable to anyone who values freedom.  Socialized health care, on the other hand,  almost always falls into the “not so good” category, with draconian distribution methods, lack of funding, long wait times, substandard care, and lack of managerial quality.  Health care reform with the public option is something that seems necessary but not for everyone, and since many people are happy with the health care already available to them  maybe it should just be socialized only for those people that need it.  Also, the reform aspect should not be limited to just the health care industry but to all health related fields, especially the ones that reap enormous profits while having little positive effect on public health such as insurance companies, litigators and lawyers, and some HMO’s and pharmaceutical companies.

The first area that needs reform is the insurance companies that cover liability and malpractice.  These should be dismantled and replaced with a federal entity similar to the FDIC which would ensure that health care is insured by people whose primary motivation is public and individual health, not profit and greed.  Reforming tort law and limiting the liability of physicians would also further reduce the expense of providing health care to all.  Yes, if a doctor removes the wrong limb in a procedure, he should be punished and the victim should be compensated, but reasonable limits and punishments should be put in place to remove the motivation of lawyers to enrich themselves based on one person’s misfortune and a physician’s  incompetence.

A second area in dire need of reform is government sponsored drug and health care research.  It should not be put into the hands of private firms whose motivation is to build machines and invent drugs that make the most profit.  The money should be made available in equal measure to public and private universities and government run and funded organizations whose sole purpose is to find cures and treatments for any ailment that may befall you.  AIDS research is underfunded simply because there are not yet enough people infected to justify pouring research funding into finding a cure.  Millions of people suffer from a variety of ailments who are not being treated simply because finding a treatment or a cure is not yet commercially viable.

Third is medical school costs for physicians.  There are many thousands of potential physicians right now who cannot afford medical school under any circumstances.  They have the desire and the aptitude, but not the money or the opportunity.  A government funded program that would fund medical school for all who desire to enter and demonstrate the ability could accomplish two very important things;  It would increase the number of qualified physicians in this country and it would create an instant pool of physicians available to work at reduced wages for the betterment of public health.  The army will pay your way through medical school in exchange for 5 or 6 years of service.  Why can’t the government do the same?  You want to fund and staff a public health clinic in an urban area?  There is no better way.

Fourth is health education for all.  Health education is barely an afterthought in most schools and has certainly been ineffective at teaching kids the dangers of eating at McDonalds and Burger King.  Sure, there is legislation for schools to stress safe sex and no drugs but then only because those are popular political issues that resonate with voters.  Healthy children usually turn into healthy adults and healthy adults usually raise healthy children.  It’s a win/win situation.  The amount of poison we allow our children to put into their bodies at a young age is by definition child endangerment.

Fifth is that we already have socialized medicine.  It’s called medicare.  All we really need to do is eliminate the age requirement and add a few co-pay categories.

There is absolutely no need to create a program that will probably cost trillions and will likely work about as well as the recent banking “reforms”.