[lbo-talk] Nat'l Review's Jerry Bowyer says universal healthcare breeds terrorism

[Peter Hart Ward]

In fact, part of the reason we're so in efficient is because a  
private system ends up being even more bureaucratic. And, in  
countries with public health care such as the UK much of the  
bureaucracy that there is is due to illegitimate interference by  
politicians--in the case of the NHS destructive interference to help  
expedite the process, well under way, of privatizing the system  
("foundation hospitals", e.g.). The insurance industry is a huge  
parasite, to be sure; but Bowyer is right in that the government  
could, like the private companies, become a meddlesome burden.

Health care experts (doctors, nurses, etc.) should give us the  
options and the public, not self-appointed representatives, should  
have the final say--it is not for politicians and pundits to  
patronize us with what is and is not "realistic"; the fact is, they  
don't know enough about what they're talking about to honestly claim  
to know what is or is not realistic. (Perhaps it would be more  
accurate to describe our representative political system a  
"patrocracy" rather than a "democracy".)

Peter Ward
Crank
Brooklyn, NY

On Jul 9, 2007, at 7:36 PM, B. wrote:


> Screen capture w/ FOX News headline, transcript:
>
> http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2007/07/05/fox-news-universal- 
> health-care-breeds-terrorists/?url=http://thinkprogress.org/ 
> 2007/07/05/fox-news-universal-health-care-breeds-terrorists/ 
> &frame=true
>
>
> BOWYER: A state run health care enterprise is
> bureaucratic, and I think the terrorists have shown
> over and over again, whether it’s dealing with INS or
> whether it’s dealing with airport security, they’re
> very good at gaming the system with bureaucracies.
> They’re very good at getting around bureaucracies. […]
>
> And if one of your guys is a jihadist, if one of your
> doctors is spending all the time online reading Osama
> bin Laden fatwas, someone’s going to notice that. But
> the National Health Serfvice is more like the post
> office, you know there’s a lot of anonymity, it’s easy
> to hide in the bureaucracy.
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