Trust Me. I'm from the government, I'm here to help.

The first thing to realize about socialized medicine is that you have to trust the government. This would be the same government that runs Social Security. The same government that runs EPA. The same government that runs Veterans Affairs. This is the same federal government that controls our boarders. The same one that runs the Securities and Exchange Commission to guarantee legit operations in the stock market. The same one that runs the FDIC to guarnatee the soundness of our banks. The same one that runs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. After all, if you can't trust your government, you kind of screwed, aren't you?

The second thing to realize about socialized medicine is that the government wants you healthy or dead. It doesn't particularly care which because both Healthy and Dead don't cost. Treatments cost, and to the government, it's all about costs and payback. Asprine is cheap, but triple by-pass surgery isn't, and the payback of doing a triple by-pass on a 65 year old retiree isn't what they are looking for.

The third thing to realize about socialized medicine is that if you think paying for health insurance for your family is expensive, just wait until you get the bill for paying for health insurance for everyone. Socialized medicine isn't free. Just like everyother government program, it costs twice or three times what it should, it won't work with a damn and it will be run by quota hires who can never be fired.

The fourth thing to realize about socialized medicine is that the govenment will use it's knowledge of your personal health information to meddle in your life. Smokers will find their treatment options restricted because they smoke. Those of us who are overweight will suffer the consequences of being bad risks by having our treatment options restricted. By restricting treatments for those with serious, expensive needs the government will be able to do more for those with less serious needs. It simply doesn't make good financial sense wasting treatment on those whose cardiac risk is high. Over fifty and got diabetes? You're probably not going to get cataract surgery no matter how bad your cataracts are.

The fifth thing to realize about socialized medicine is that non-medical beaurocrat will be making your treatment decisons for you based on financial numbers and not your well being. Your options will be determined based on a number of factors that do not directly relate to your condition. If you are an overweight, over 50, hypertensive male with a blown ACL, you can forget about getting it fixed because most overweight, over 50, hypertensive males do not do things that require an ACL. If by chance, you are an overweight, over 50, hypertensive male who enjoys coaching soccer and snow skiiing and you blow out your ACL, under socialized medicine, your soccer and skiing days are over.

Got Asthama, AIDS, Altizemers, Parkinsons, or diabetes? New treatments are expensive treatments. The treatment you have now is the best you can ever expect,...unless of course, your profile and history indicates that the treatment you're getting now does not have a sufficient return potential. In that case, you'll soon be getting a cheaper treatment.

Finally, the crack whore on the corner who get's pregnant turning tricks for her next score will be able to walk into a public funded abortion clinic and get an abortion on demand because that's her constitutional right.

Welcome to socialized medicine.