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For the love of doctors and capitalism

VIEW FROM THE VALLEY

COLUMNIST

Published: Monday, February 8, 2010

Updated: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 01:02

I love the United States. Not in one of those super-patriot, rifle and rebel flag kind of ways, but in the logical love of capitalism, the Constitution and the faults and strengths of this great nation. I love the fact that we spread technology. I love our beautiful national parks. And although I know there are problems with the system, overall, I think America works well.


With my great love of the U.S., I can't help but love capitalism and the fact that a well-educated, hard-working individual can work his or her way to the top of any profession. Particularly, I value those of the medical profession and for that reason, I cannot support the health care plan.


Wow, I finally said it. I do not support the health care plan. I have kept my mouth shut on this issue for months (except with close friends, of course) because I didn't want to be labeled as a tea partier, a Nazi, a town hall assassin or a murderer. I just don't think the plan will work.


Doctors spend years in school and go thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. The services they provide are as close to God as I can imagine – the magic of bypass surgery and removing brain tumors is something I can only begin to understand. The people in a hospital can literally save your life and have vowed to do so if given the opportunity. Why should they not be paid for their services?


A relative of mine is a neonatologist in Nevada and has one of the highest success rates for premature and multiple births in the country. It took him years to reach this level of near perfection, and he has done it while raising two children with his wonderful wife. He works long hours, is on call almost constantly and is dedicated to his work. Are you going to tell me that he does not deserve a large pay check?


This man has done the work, gone through the schooling and gained the experience. It took years for him to make money past his med school debts and now, as I look at the cry for a health care bill, I can't help but think that people are taking his skills for granted. If we don't pay people the type of money we do, how will we get any good doctors? They won't be able to pay for med school!


As someone who recently underwent a rather expensive surgery, I say that I am willing to pay the large amount billed to me because my well-trained and well-educated doctor did what I could never do – he fixed me! Because of him, I ran a mile the other day. He deserves the money he's getting.


The capitalist system shows us that the more you put in, the more you get out. Although it's never certain (look at the stock market, for instance), it is a usable system that produces great professionals. If we make health care part of the government, how will we pay to train wonderful doctors? How will we produce new medicines, vaccines and cures? Someone must answer these questions before I consider universal health care.


Contact Amanda White at white461@marshall.edu.

 

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7 comments Log in to Comment

Journalism Major
Wed Feb 24 2010 13:28
This is a "column" just like every thing else on the opinion page. This does not reflect anything other than the author's personal beliefs and convictions. To judge it based on its alleged bias would be like to judge The O'Reilly Factor or Countdown with Keith Olbermann on the same mertis. It is all commentary. Judge it on her claims and her support for them, not just because she seems to represent a differing ideology.

And COLA: To wish for PSC majors to run the paper is pointless. This paper is run by the Journalism school, so naturally, journalism majors make up the editorial staff. It is that way because generally journalists understand journalism in the same way Poly Sci majors understand political science.

H Emerson
Tue Feb 23 2010 13:48
This article is ridiculous. No one is proposing that we shouldn't pay doctors for their services, and no one is proposing that we shouldn't pay them well. The systems in South Korea, Japan, the whole of Western Europe, Canada, among other places, are not dreadful failures. These systems are almost universally supported by their people - 90% approval rating in Canada - and yet, these systems are not being pursued by the current plan before Congress. In fact, the current plan is exceedingly moderate, even conservative as compared to the systems in other countries. It is not a new system - it simply modifies the current system, and places new restrictions/requirements on certain areas. Contrary to your views, government action has done plenty of good in this country. Additionally, it was not arbitrary action - the people called on their representatives to address issues, and so they did. That's the way it's supposed to work. This attitude that the government is an adversary is dumb, and the belief that government action has produced nothing good in this country is counter-factual. The United States has been operating under the assumption that we are cutting edge for decades now. We had better wake up! In many important areas, including education, healthcare, transportation, and energy policy - we have fallen behind. In the past, countries emulated the US. Some of these countries achieved great success doing this, but they continued to innovate thereafter. Unfortunately, the US has lost its imagination.
Justin Sowards
Wed Feb 17 2010 17:33
Health care is a PRIVILEGE, not a right. Thank you Amanda for not being a brain washed liberal that realizes how great our health care system actually is.
Anonymous
Tue Feb 16 2010 22:37
How did no one respond to the fact that this article is biased, uninformed, and all around preposterous?
Jerry Hess
Thu Feb 11 2010 00:37
Capitalism didn't fail in the 1920s, if one picked up a history book and read it correctly then they would know this. In the 1920s under the presidency of Calvin Coolidge we actually BOOMED economically and he took a hands off approach to the economy. In the late 1920s we received Hoover, or Mr. Screwup as I refer to him, and not only did we have more economic interference and regulation than any other time in the history of America(including today) we had the highest tax rate the nation has ever seen. Many people will bend it to say Hoover just "didn't do anything", no he did something and it was economically stressful because of the heavy regulations he placed on the nation's capitalism. What he "didn't do" was try to fix his system cause he thought the system that screwed us would somehow fix us.(I smell Deja Vu...)
Joshua R. Parsons
Wed Feb 10 2010 13:45
Ms. White raises some very good points, particularly from where will innovation come when market incentives are replaced by government incentives. I applaud her for telling her “love story” of the only system that has pulled millions (within the last decade or so, alone) from the grinding poverty, which I am sure COLA would even renounce.

It was no other system than capitalism that broke mankind’s chains to what economists call, The Malthusian Trap, wherein with each increase in technology the population growth caused by such an increase would return the group or community back to the same standards of living, as if the technological innovation had never occurred at all.

What does this say? It says that mankind had a subsistence equilibrium from his appearance on the African savannahs to the dawn of The Industry Revolution. In other words, mankind was no better off in 1700 A.D. England than he was in 2000 B.C. Babylon or even just some clan or tribe wandering Northern Europe or the island of Japan prior to the written word, itself. Mankind had never truly improved his lot in life until Capitalism gave him the market incentives to break the bonds of subsistence. If COLA does not think man should return to the subsistence equilibrium, there are still plenty who would sent mankind back tomorrow, if they could.

Moving beyond the history lesson, the world lives off American health care innovation. The top five American hospitals conduct more clinical trails than all the hospitals in the developed world. If one cares about the poor of the world, then it stands that he or she should advocate the liberation of American health care, instead of afflicting it more so with perverse government incentives, which in return will harm the developing and developed alike.

To COLA: firstly, I do not think you are stupid, but many of the comments made in your name are excessively rude and very asinine; secondly, I am not sure where the “Rebel Flag” came in here, but nevertheless, that is another discussion; thirdly, I wish political scientists took more econ courses, then they might actually learn something about how the world works; and finally, how does one get to speak for the whole of a College on the Marshall University campus, or is it just too much trouble to be an individual these days?

COLA
Tue Feb 9 2010 07:02
If you own a "rebel flag" you don't love America. That is a symbol of rebellion against the Federal Government of the United States od America. Further strict capitalism failed in the 1920s. I wish the were political science majors on the staff...

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