By Allen Nitschelm
The Democrats are excellent at labeling, much like President Trump is excellent at nicknames. Give credit where it is due!
The most recent crop of Socialists trying to hijack the Democratic Party call themselves “Democratic Socialists of America” (DSA). They are Democratic in the sense that unlike most Far Left orthodoxies, they are hoping to get their power through the willing votes of naive citizens. They have fertile picking among the Democratic electorate.
What is very refreshing about the DSA is their transparency. It is quite unbelievable, actually. Back when President Obama ran for office, he made it very clear he was no Socialist. He knew that being tagged with that label would cost him a lot of votes among most regular voters. Yet his policies supported and enabled the rise of the DSA. Obama even called the Michigan DSA Senate nominee to offer his congratulations and support. So was Obama lying back then about his core beliefs? (That is a rhetorical question, dear reader.)
These DSA candidates don’t hide their plan. Future tax hikes are a positive policy position in their minds. The only question is: what groups can they target who will be unable or ineffective at fighting back, such that they can achieve at least some of their goals?
I am not a Hillary Clinton fan, but at least she is not DSA. And there are plenty of mainstream Democrats who must despise the Far Left turn their party is taking, but 99% are too afraid to speak out. I wonder when they will find their courage and voice? Maybe when the DSA gains power and throws them off their bus, no longer needed. Of course, then it will be too late. As Adam Schiff recently made clear, the goal is to win, and it doesn’t matter who is driving their agenda so long as they gain power. They will have their death-match cage fight thereafter, but I’m putting my money on AOC.
On to today’s topic, and I’ll try to be brief as I can. The DSA has been advocating “Medicare for All” which is a brilliant slogan. Medicare is a program that workers pay some wages into during their lifetimes (much like Social Security) and get a retirement benefit. Suggesting that a pre-paid program should be “for all” without the required years of prepaid funding should instead be called Socialized Medicine. That is where society takes on the cost and the recipients get it for free.
But in the DSA world, you can give things out for nothing and let someone else pay for it. This is called Thinking Progressively. As long as the voters aren’t payers, what incentives do they have to vote it down? Who doesn’t want free stuff?
Anyone with a brain knows this type of spending and governance is completely irresponsible and foolish. But perhaps if you are whipped enough into a frenzy by Trump Derangement Syndrome, you will vote for change. For those voters, unfortunately, there is not a “none of the above” option at the ballot box. A vote against capitalism is a vote for communism. A vote for any candidate that supports “Medicare for All” is a vote to destroy America’s Best-in-the-World healthcare system.
Socialized Medicine has a whole host of problems and issues too numerous to go into. But I want to focus on just one area, something that many people might miss. And that is that the cost of implementing this program won’t be mostly covered by the “government” (bad enough). That would require immediate massive tax hikes. No, there is a group of people who can provide the short-term funding to make the funding seem to work, at least for a little while.
What makes American healthcare so fantastic is the quality of our doctors and our hospitals. People come from all over the world to get medical treatment in the US for a very good reason. And if Socialized Medicine becomes the law as the DSA wants, the quality of doctors is going to quickly decline. If that happens, it will be a generational decline which would take decades and many hundreds of billions of dollars to fix. And that assumes that the electorate sees the errors of its ways and throws the Socialists out. I don’t see them going quietly, by the way.
If Socialized Medicine becomes law, government will be taking on an enormous financial burden. The AI says it would cost the government $3-$4 Trillion per year. The current annual federal budget is around $7 trillion, so this would be a 50+% increase in federal spending each year, going forward.
The doctors would all become government employees. They would have government-set salaries, work rules, benefits, etc. In order to control these enormous costs, the government would have to tighten the belt and reduce these salaries and benefits. The government would be dictating all the rules. And if doctors (and other healthcare workers) don’t like it, they would be free to find other employment in the dreaded private sector. They were just greedy anyway, trying to hold onto the past promises and representations upon which they had made all of their career decisions.
So it is my contention that the bulk of the “costs” associated with Socialized Medicine will not be borne by taxpayers (hey, some of them vote!) but by the doctors who have already invested their time, sweat, and money into developing their careers. Their costs are “sunk” and they no longer have choices to pursue other options. This makes them vulnerable and easy to exploit.
So the first step will be to create a new contract with millions of new government workers: one which pays an objectively fair wage and gives good benefits. For most people, this might seem generous. But not for doctors.
And by capping doctors’ salaries to what might look fine in the real world, the Socialists will be able to claim Billions of dollars in savings on Day One. And the doctors will be given a choice: sign the contract or look for work elsewhere. Many will quit, but some will sign and then start to look elsewhere.
In other words, the Socialists will count on a good five or 10 years before those taking the brunt of this transition can make their voices heard–with their feet. And once doctors start walking, the workload on those who remain will increase. If you thought it was tough to see a doctor today, just wait until the DSA is in charge.
Eventually, you won’t even be able to be seen by the doctor because there will be too few and they will be stretched too thin. So you will end up with substandard care from a well-meaning but much-less-well trained Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner. Or maybe the AI doctor will hold your hand as it delivers its devastating health news to you and your family.
This is what healthcare will look like in America if the DSA Socialists gain power to make policy decisions, and we will all be poorer and less healthy as a result.
ALLEN’S SUPER PREDICTION BONUS:The next big DSA slogan we will hear: Social Security for All!
Allen Nitschelm is the former Editor of the Acton Forum and now lives in the Seacoast area of NH. He fled Acton in 2023 and has been on the run since.
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