We Americans are a spoiled bunch. At the same time we benefit from the greatest health care advancements in human history, we have, in our self-centered way, bought into the fairy tale that our health care system is broken. We have convinced ourselves that the markets can never provide us with good medical care and that the only solution to the problem is a government remedy. If we are not careful we may get what we wish for.
With Barack Obama as president, the likelihood of America turning to a nationalized-socialized-universal health care system is a real possibility. He and his Democratic cohorts are all too eager to take over and administer a sector of our lives that happens to make up almost 10 percent of all economic activity in America: a power grab of an unprecedented level made possible by an American electorate that has succumbed to the hype and hysteria about the so-called health care crisis in America.
There is no health care crisis in America. In fact, just the opposite is true. We live in fabulous times when it comes to innovations and technology in medicine. The last half-century has seen Americans benefit from some of the greatest improvements in their health and well-being that is, quite frankly, unparalleled in human civilization.
Yes, health care in America is expensive but not because the system is broken. It is expensive because we the people demand medical services that would have been unimaginable just 60 years ago. If death is the ultimate expense, it has been proven that Americans are all too willing to pay large amounts to avoid it for as long as possible.
Sixty years ago triple bypass surgery was not expensive, it did not exist. Heart problems back then meant a few nitroglycerin tablets, bed rest, and the awful realization that your “time” was near. Today, there are thousands of bypass operations performed that extend countless lives for years to come.
Sixty years ago the vast array of wonder drugs were not expensive, they did not exist. Wonder drugs, that among a multitude of uses help prevent the need to undergo major invasive (and yes, expensive) surgery. Wonder drugs that battle infection, ease the pain, and accelerate the healing.
Sixty years ago the cost of the thousands of medical products and procedures that we have become accustomed to were not expensive, they did not exist. Laser surgery, artificial hips, organ transplants, magnetic resonance imaging, as well as medications that ease depression, lower blood pressure, and build bone mass … the list is endless and we Americans demand access to them all.
Sixty years ago cosmetic surgery was not expensive, it did not exist. Today, thousands routinely undergo expensive restoration work to remove signs of aging, obesity and hair loss. Only in America is it possible that vanity can morph into a necessity.
Sixty years ago people who smoked, drank and ate too much usually were destined to an early grave by their 40s or 50s. Today, high-tech surgery and equally high-tech drugs can assure those same people that they never will have to suffer the sins of their indulgences.
And not to go unnoticed are the millions of immigrants who take extraordinary risks to enter America not just for jobs but to have access to the finest medical care in the world. And just as symbolic, the hundreds of sick and injured around the world that choose to pay huge sums of money to come to America for treatment.
These are not the signs of a broken health care system. These are testaments to the fact that America has built, and continues to build, the greatest, most innovative and most accessible health care system in the world.
Those who wish to dismantle this system and replace it with a government-run system would do well to heed the famous words: “Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.”
Ike Morgan has taught high school math and physics in Maine for more than two decades. He lives in Exeter.