What would that solve? The power-hungry will always find sneaky ways to make "campaign contributions." At least right now I have a more accurate name for my rep's real employer than "Mr. Bag-With-Dollar-Sign."
True, but such contributions would be illegal, and thus more risky. Pandering to corporations with socialized health care would be a disaster. We'd end up with the Haliburton version of health care. And by that I don't mean unethical behavior overseas, I mean a government sponsored corporate monopoly on the industry. Who is the lucky winner that gets the biggest health care contract this year? Yes, I know what the plan is, yes, I know it's supposed to allow people to choose, but favors will be traded and regulations will be made and that's just a part of business as usual these days
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But you're making the same point as the article: Health care won't work as long as for-profit companies are involved (If the goal is the best health care we can afford as a nation, then "for-profit" and "corrupt" might as well be the same word). If the law says the "lucky winner" must be a non-profit, then at least it wouldn't have stockholders to put ahead of patients.
The problem is that there aren't very many non-profit contractors out there in the healthcare field, and there is no infrastructure for that kind of medical program. At most, a nascent organization of that sort would just put a buffer between the fed and the contractors, but to say "all your hospitals and equipments belong to me" is way beyond anything this society is ready for, not to mention a disincentive for manufacturers of medication and medical equipment.
Certainly the US is a generation or three from non-profit medicine, but everything is nascent some time. As I said to Jason, we've done it to other industries, and that has its own set of problems, but for health care there's just no other way. A for-profit markets won't function if demand can't vary, and that's exactly the case with health care: Everyone needs it.
The question is whether it will or will not still be legal to practice medicine privately. If it is legal, we are going to end up in the same situation as the public schools. If it isn't legal, a lot fewer people will bother paying the premium for med school. It's the same reason there aren't enough lawyers in public service: it just won't pay off their student debt.
Socialize campaign financing, then we'll talk.
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