Some quick reasons why the current health system in the U.S. is better...

[satinsplash]

...than socialized medicine? I need some quick reasons, with sources (who said it, where said it, where you found it, whatever), for a paper. Please no arguments- I already know them. Right now I need the other side.

[pdx_girl]

While I believe everyone deserves healthcare, there is a reason why the US has some of the best doctors and researchers in the world. If there is profit to be made in medicine, then there is a big incentive for people to come up with new procedures, medicines, and vaccines. It also creates a lot of competition to keep medical breakthroughs happening fast.

In some ways, you could say Europe gets socialized health care without actually paying the full social cost, since they benefit from our breakthroughs just as we do.

[Doobie B]

Randall Parker MBA: interesting name, interesting answer

[SonoranAngel]

You may get some answers here...
Website for "Americans for free choice in medicine"
http://www.afcm.org/freemarketnotenemy.html

Good luck with your paper!

[cici]

Well, there's ... um .... erm ... uh ...

I'm thinking!

[nurseozarkjj]

There aren't any. The current U.S. health system is as corrupt as our current government.

[Randall Parker, MBA]

Milton Friedman has argued that health care system in the United States is partly socialist, and suggestions for improving medical system by expanding the role of government would move health care to a completely socialist system. According to Friedman, third party payment system in the United States is communist and accordingly it has communist results.

The first system of socialized medicine based on compulsory insurance with state subsidy was created by Otto von Bismarck after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Socialized health care was implemented by the Soviet Union in the 1920s. New Zealand was the first country with a mixed economy to provide the direct provision of health care by the state when, in 1939, it provided mental health services free of cost to the recipient following the passing of the Social Security Act of 1938. After World War II in the 1940s the United Kingdom established its National Health Service which was built from the outset as a comprehensive service. A socialized model was used in China in from the 1950s to the 1970s during the first two decades of communist rule. Cuba adopted socialized medicine in the 1960s under the leadership of Fidel Castro. Also in the 1960s, the United States initiated its Medicaid program to help poor mothers and their children.

A blogster (second link below) makes the following observations:

I looked at the statistics of breast cancer among several countries. The chart that I used was at http://www.imaginis.com/breasthealth/statistics.asp#1. It is pretty easy to analize.

Based on the statistics, in the United States you have an 81% chance of surviving breast cancer. Look at the United Kingdom. You have a 72% chance of survival. Our northern neighbors, and role models give you a 75% chance of surviving breast cancer. Some may look at this as an argument against universal health care, since every country with the more advanced and modern health care, unlike the obsolete private system in the U.S. However, you have to look at the big picture....

The third link below reinforces the first entry from Wikipedia and provides some historical perspective as well as its own sources.

The fourth, and final, link below provides links to several other good sources for you. Good luck!