What Soviet Medicine Teaches Us

[shogun rua]

What Soviet Medicine Teaches Us - Yuri N. Maltsev - Mises Institute

In 1918, the Soviet Union became the first country to promise universal "cradle-to-grave" healthcare coverage, to be accomplished through the complete socialization of medicine. The "right to health" became a "constitutional right" of Soviet citizens.

The proclaimed advantages of this system were that it would "reduce costs" and eliminate the "waste" that stemmed from "unnecessary duplication and parallelism" — i.e., competition.

These goals were similar to the ones declared by Mr. Obama and Ms. Pelosi — attractive and humane goals of universal coverage and low costs. What's not to like?

The system had many decades to work, but widespread apathy and low quality of work paralyzed the healthcare system. In the depths of the socialist experiment, healthcare institutions in Russia were at least a hundred years behind the average US level. Moreover, the filth, odors, cats roaming the halls, drunken medical personnel, and absence of soap and cleaning supplies added to an overall impression of hopelessness and frustration that paralyzed the system. According to official Russian estimates, 78 percent of all AIDS victims in Russia contracted the virus through dirty needles or HIV-tainted blood in the state-run hospitals.

Irresponsibility, expressed by the popular Russian saying "They pretend they are paying us and we pretend we are working," resulted in appalling quality of service, widespread corruption, and extensive loss of life. My friend, a famous neurosurgeon in today's Russia, received a monthly salary of 150 rubles — one third of the average bus driver's salary.

In order to receive minimal attention by doctors and nursing personnel, patients had to pay bribes. I even witnessed a case of a "nonpaying" patient who died trying to reach a lavatory at the end of the long corridor after brain surgery. Anesthesia was usually "not available" for abortions or minor ear, nose, throat, and skin surgeries. This was used as a means of extortion by unscrupulous medical bureaucrats.

"Slavery certainly 'reduced costs' of labor, 'eliminated the waste' of bargaining for wages, and avoided 'unnecessary duplication and parallelism'."

To improve the statistics concerning the numbers of people dying within the system, patients were routinely shoved out the door before taking their last breath.

[NinjaBoy]

I think it has more to do with the economics and social state that Russian states were in then anything else.

I found the essay to be pretty poorly written. From the incorrect, unreferenced fact about the Canadian system, to this quote:

compared healthcare for young women in the United States having babies to older patients with complex and incurable diseases in socialized healthcare systems — the movie would have been the same, except that the US healthcare system would look ideal, and the UK, Canada, and France would look barbaric.

The problem with that quote is, all three of the countries have been rated significantly higher in their ability to give their citizens health care, then the US.

The essay really glosses over facts to make a point. I guess the conclusion sums it up best:



I'm not sure what he's arguing against, nobody was purposing a "soviet style" universal system. But the post war soviet system is what he seems to base his argument on. He briefly touches on other countries with universal healthcare, but all those systems provide superior treatment then the USA. He argues that you can find better doctors and equipment in the US, which is probably true. But how many people have access to that? It doesn't make the system better for the citizens, it makes it better for a small percentage.

Here's an interesting quote from his article that contradicts himself. He complains about systems like Canada's and the Uk's, but Japan has the same one, and when he compares the horror of the Russian system, saying that infant mortality is twice as high there then in the US! Which is scary, but then it's twice as high in US as it is in Japan...

"At the end of the socialist experiment, the official infant-mortality rate in Russia was more than 2.5 times as high as in the United States and more than five times that of Japan"

Comparing a universal healthcare system that was considered over the summer, to one that a broke country 75 years ago, implemented between wars is a poor argument in my opinion.

BTW - Sorry if everything is kind of disjointed, I'm at work right now and writing some other stuff too.

[ebbomega]

I'm not sure what he's arguing against, nobody was purposing a "soviet style" universal system.

Because any form of healthcare reform that involves higher taxation on the rich and better coverage for the underprivileged = communism, duh. Haven't you been watching FOX news?

[NinjaBoy]

Originally Posted by ebbomega

Because any form of healthcare reform that involves higher taxation on the rich and better coverage for the underprivileged = communism, duh. Haven't you been watching FOX news?

I still find it odd that Fox News complains that a government regulated program would fail horribly and destroy the industries it regulates, while being a member of the FCC

[SEAN!]

Originally Posted by NinjaBoy

I still find it odd that Fox News complains that a government regulated program would fail horribly and destroy the industries it regulates, while being a member of the FCC

that is a great quote in the picture you posted, where did you get it?

I think that prettty much sums up how intellectually bankrupt the austrian school of economics is.

fuck ludwig von mises

[ebbomega]

Originally Posted by SEAN!

that is a great quote in the picture you posted, where did you get it?

It's all over digg/reddit.