The Cost of Hillarycare 2

Who could argue with free medicine? Another good question might be who could afford it. Here's William F. Buckley, who begins by comparing proposed American plans, to one already enacted in Britain for half a century:

The socialist government was widely considered to be the disaster that Winston Churchill, running in 1951 to replace Attlee as prime minister, insisted it was. But the British socialists made one contribution to modern democratic practices that stuck: free medicine.

It was uproariously popular. I raised the point with Sen. Goldwater before his own appearance in Wisconsin, and he told of his vehement opposition to the program, a version of it having been introduced in a Senate bill by Estes Kefauver and Hubert Humphrey. Goldwater summoned his deepest reserves of gravity and said to me that if enacted, the Kefauver-Humphrey bill would end up costing $5 billion.

I thought the sum indefensibly exaggerated, but this morning's New York Times examines the health-reform measures being advocated in the current season by the leading Democratic contenders for president. The plans are briefly described, and one section is devoted to cost. The estimated annual cost of Sen. Hillary Clinton's plan is $110 billion. Of Sen. Barack Obama's, "$50 to $65 billion." Of John Edwards', "$90 to $120 billion."

Also, John Stossel reveals the shocking toll "free health care" has taken on the UK:

One basic problem with nationalized health care is that it makes medical services seem free. That pushes demand beyond supply. Governments deal with that by limiting what's available.That's why the British National Health Service recently made the pathetic promise to reduce wait times for hospital care to four months.The wait to see dentists is so long that some Brits pull their own teeth. Dental tools: pliers and vodka.One hospital tried to save money by not changing bed sheets every day. British papers report that instead of washing them, nurses were encouraged to just turn them over.

Isn't there a saying "if you think medicine is expensive now, wait until it's free". The description below my blog title indicates my feeling on the subject, of what the first and real purpose of a government is, not making everyone dependent to an all-knowing and all-wise Nanny State. Goodbye freedom.