'Socialism' isn't a bad word with health care

By this definition, is Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) program a socialist one? To a degree, the answer is yes.

Virtually every country in the world that has a public health system runs said system in a socialist manner, as the production and distribution of health care is run at least partially by the government. Socialist health care may, in fact, be the only way to ensure that all levels of society have access to reasonably high-quality medical care.

Many Americans however, seem to be mistaking socialism for communism. In a communist nation, all doctors are state doctors and theoretically everyone receives the same level of care. In practice, communist nations from Cuba to China have offered those with money and connections many more options than what the poor are forced to settle for. In reality, there are very few cases of genuine “communist” health care. Most successful public health programs are mildly socialist.

If someone in Taiwan breaks his or her leg, a trip to any hospital that's part of the NHI will probably suffice. But, should the patient suffer from some more complicated ailment, those without significant assets will still get more than decent care from an NHI affiliated hospital, while the affluent have the option of seeking out more private specialists. Taiwan's system straddles socialism and capitalism in a way that is probably as fair as it's ever going to get.

U.S. President Obama made enacting legislation to provide some kind of public health insurance option one of the cornerstones of his 2008 campaign. Obama has put forward proposals, but there are grumblings, even from members of his own party.

Some Americans fear that should the government “take over” health care, their options will be limited. Fear mongers have preyed on the public with inflammatory statements claiming the U.S. president would let “death panels” decide if grandma should get a lifesaving operation or not.

Some of Obama's detractors seem strikingly misinformed. One person stood up at a town hall-style meeting and said they didn't want America to have the same health care system as “Communist Soviet Russia.” Of course Russia hasn't been “soviet” or communist for a very long time.

Another participant said they were worried that the U.S. government would now be able to make decisions as to what care should be available, unlike now where “we decide what we need.”

The truth is that in the United States today, only those with excellent insurance “decide what they need.” Everyone else is at the mercy of a usually very limited insurance policy. We don't have enough space to go into the recent cases in which U.S. insurance companies denied care or delayed care until the patient expired, but there are many.

The National Coalition on Health Care in the U.S. says that in 2007 there were as many as 46 million Americans --representing 18% of the general population -- without health insurance. America may have the best doctors and the best level of care in the world, but if you don't happen to have a steady job with a good company that provides full coverage, none of the superlatives apply.

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