The Medical Freedom Channel

“Europeans are now learning some hard facts of life about socialized medicine: There’s no such thing as a free lunch. The question is whether Congress will learn from Europe’s mistakes as it takes the next steps in reforming the American healthcare system. For many years advocates of government-run health care pointed to Europe as an ideal, noting America was the ‘only industrialized country without a national healthcare system.’ Now, however, the European welfare states are slashing benefits in the face of rising healthcare costs…. The Europeans have run into a very simple economic rule. If something is perceived as free, people will consume more of it than they would if they had to pay for it. Think of it this way: If food were free, would you eat hamburger or steak? At the same time, healthcare is a finite good. There are only so many doctors, so many hospital beds, and so much technology. If people over-consume those resources, it drives up the cost of healthcare.” [editor’s note: And these lessons are still not be heeded - SAT] (09/23/1996, republished 09/01/2003)