The costs and benefits of socialized medicine

Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke with great respect of “our socialist friends� in Europe who, after World War II, were developing socially responsible approaches to public health care. Ike reminded Americans that the defining characteristic of America is neither “capitalism� nor “socialism,� but democracy.

Since then, we have had half a century of experience to compare for-profit costs and outcomes in the United States with the not-for-profit costs and outcomes of our democratic “socialist� friends in Europe. What’s the verdict?

A Sharon friend and avid reader of The Lakeville Journal told me recently that what he likes to see in TLJ articles are “facts.� Another close friend mailed me a 60-page report for the U.S. Congress by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) on “U.S. Health Care Spending: Comparison with other OECD Countries� (Sept. 17, 2007), and suggested using its findings in a piece in The Journal. (These CRS data closely conform to the World Health Organization’s own health statistics report in 2009.) OK, so what are the facts as reported by the CRS?

u      u      u

Of the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States ranks number one in excessive health-care spending, namely $6,102 per capita, compared with only $3,159 (almost 50 percent less) in France and $2,438 (60 percent less) in all OECD countries combined. Health-care spending as a percentage of GDP is 15.3 percent in the United States, 10.5 percent in France and only 8.6 percent in all OECD countries combined.

Thus, the United States is by far the heaviest spender on health in the OECD. But what does the United States get for the money, and how does it compare with our “socialist� friends in Europe and across our Northern border?

According to the CRS study, the average life expectancy in the United States is 77.5 years, in Canada 79.9 years and in France 80.3 years. Infant mortality per 1,000 live births in the United States is 6.9, in Canada 5.3 and in France only 3.9 (40 percent better than the United States.) Overall mortality rates per 1,000 people in the United States is 6.1, in Canada 5.2 and in France 5.1 (16 percent better than the United States).

The United States has a higher rate of deaths from natural and disease causes (we won’t even count murders and suicides) than 17 other OECD countries. In short, the United States pays the most money for health care, to reap some of the worst health outcomes among developed countries, including our “socialist� friends. The CRS verdict is clear.

u      u      u

True, the United States is a leader in medical science, but not in making the benefits of that science available to our citizens. The largely privatized for-profit health insurance industry in the United States is a big part of the problem. How well are our health-care professionals used — doctors, for example? France, for all its lower costs, has 30 percent more doctors per capita than the United States, and has twice as many doctor visits per capita compared with the United States. Yet there is plenty of innovation in France, e.g., the recent first successful facial transplant. The United States trails many other countries in stem cell therapies.

Thus, there is nothing inherent in for-profit medicine that ensures performance superior to socially responsible medical science.

u      u      u

Americans are a pragmatic people. If someone comes up with a better mousetrap, we’ll buy it. The label is not as important as whether it catches mice.

Maybe we should take a tip from Ike Eisenhower. Maybe our “socialist� friends have something to offer us. There’s nothing un-American about “socialized medicine� or national health planning. As Malcolm X used to say, “If someone’s doin’ better ’n you, he’s probably doin’ somethin’ you ain’t.� He has a point.

The United States is the only major developed democracy in the world that has thus far failed to adopt “Health for All� as a basic human right and a means of social justice. Cynically, the label of “socialized medicine� has been used perjoratively to deny to the American people the very justice, general welfare and liberty affirmed by the Constitution of the United States and already enjoyed by many of our “socialist� friends.

The facts are clear. The conclusion is self-evident. The means are at hand. Now is the moment of opportunity. Shall we seize it?

Sharon resident Anthony Piel is a former director and legal counsel of the World Health Organization.

Latest News

Father Joseph Kurnath

LAKEVILLE — Father Joseph G. M. Kurnath, retired priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford, passed away peacefully, at the age of 71, on Sunday, June 29, 2025.

Father Joe was born on May 21, 1954, in Waterbury, Connecticut. He attended kindergarten through high school in Bristol.

Keep ReadingShow less
Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

Keep ReadingShow less
Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

Keep ReadingShow less