The Socialist Flag will be flying over all medical facilities in the not too distant future. You can stop it, if you act now to preserve you freedom.

Not many of the young n's remember the Soviet Union, but it was the Mother of all dictatorships, totalitarian from the word go. From the top down, the Party Secretary was the Capo d' Capo, the head of the heads, the captain of the captains. And if you were fortunate to live in the Soviet Union, you can attest to the socialized medical care that was offered to their citizens. To put it mildly, most hospitals were out of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".  If you got sick, "they said you were crazy" and sent you to an institution for the insane. Shortly thereafter, your death would be announced. By the way, the doctors were paid less than the janitors. Because, the State thought it was the Doctor's duty to practice medicine for the good of the people. Sounds like the new Obama Health Care mandate. Salaries of Doctors will be set at the Federal Level.  Health Care will be tightly controlled from the TOP.

The information below is culled from an article written by Anna Ebeling was born, raised, and educated in the former Soviet Union. Living much of her life in the heart of what Ronald Reagan called “the evil empire,” she experienced first hand the reality of “the workers’ paradise.” Her stories of the absurdities of life in the collectivist utopia are many. Anna met Richard Ebeling in Moscow in May 1991 and married him later that year. Together they joined the defenders of liberty and faced Soviet tanks at the Russian Parliament in Moscow during the attempted hard-line communist coup d’état.

The utopian ideal of equality of circumstances has captured people’s imagination since ancient times. If only everybody could have the same of everything the world would be different. There would be no envy, no crime, no poverty, no greed, and no unhappiness. From Plato to Karl Marx, many thinkers looked to the state for the creation of that heaven on earth. In our own times, this dream has remained alive in the form of the welfare state, and today it shows itself most distinctly in the appeal of government-managed health care.

 At the beginning of the 20th century, the quality of Russian medical care and medical research was internationally recognized. Was it a perfect system? Of course not. But contrary to the socialist myth-makers, medical care in Imperial Russia was widely available and provided in a fairly cost-efficient manner. Both the profit motive of the competitive marketplace and the spirit of charity assured the provision of quality medical services throughout Russian society.

This, then, was the system the Bolsheviks wanted to destroy. Unfortunately,many Russian intellectuals, including medical doctors themselves, were infected with the socialist disease. Seeing so much poverty in a still underdeveloped Russia, many doctors turned their back on the free market and came to believe that government management could create a better society through planned equality of living conditions, education, and certainly medical care. Thus, guided by wrong ideas, the members of the medical profession helped to destroy with their own hands a health-care system that, while certainly not perfect, provided people with skilled treatment, regardless of their income or social background.

Affirmative Action, Soviet Style

The nature and quality of medical education were affected, as well. Bribes and connections determined both the hiring and admission processes in medical schools. Skills and professionalism mattered very little, and service to the community did not matter at all.

This poor medical care was reinforced by the fact that entrance into higher education in the Soviet Union was dictated by a system of affirmative action that had been introduced shortly after the triumph of the Socialist Revolution in 1917.

In 1917, like everything else, medical services were nationalized by the new socialist government. Gradually, small medical practices disappeared and a network of big, factory-like hospitals and out-patient clinics were established all around the country. Everyone was registered in both out-patient clinics and hospitals according to their government-assigned residence. Patient choice was completely taken away by the Soviet State, which took full responsibility for centrally planning each individual’s medical expenses and health care.

With the elimination of private expenditures for health services, the form and amount of medical care were now dependent upon the budgetary priorities of the State. All members of the medical industry were put on low fixed monthly salaries and were mandated to examine and treat an overwhelming daily quota of patients. Medical research became dependent upon inadequate annual budgetary allocations from the government. Doctors’ and nurses’ incomes no longer depended on their professional skills or the number of patients they treated.Total unionization of the medical profession made it practically impossible for anyone to be fired. Without markets and prices determining the value and availability of health care, the government imposed a rationing system for medical services and pharmaceutical products.

In bitter situations, Russians often respond with jokes and anecdotes. In one of them, an American and a Soviet doctor are talking. The American says, “Dear colleague, our profession is imperfect. You treat the patient from one disease and he dies from another.” The Soviet doctor replies, “No, dear colleague, this is not the case with me. Mine die from whatever I treat them.”

http://fee.org/nff/socialized-health-care-the-communist-dream-and-the-soviet-reality/, click on for the full article.