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Socialized medicine can refer to any system of medical care Control led and financed by the Government . The term is often used to describe publicly administered health care systems such as the British discourse and has been referred to as an Epithet . The Sociology of Social Problems By Paul Burleigh Horton, Gerald R. Leslie page 59 (cited as an example of a standard propaganda device: "giving an idea (or person) a bad name, so it will be rejected without examining the evidence.")Scott M. Cutlip, Fund Raising in the United States: Its Role in America's Philanthropy, p. 383. ISBN 0887383173 The Canadian health care system is sometimes referred to as socialized medicine because it is funded and heavily regulated by the government. http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=270338135202343 A Canadian doctor reflects on socialized medicine. The Canadian system is more commonly categorized as Single-payer Health Care because the government pays for most medical services for each citizen and health care is provided both publicly and privately. http://www.pacificviews.org/weblog/archives/002944.htmlhttp://www.pnhp.org/publications/nejmadmin.pdf Most industrialized countries, including the United States, and many developing countries operate some form of socialized medicine. RELATION TO UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE Achieving Universal Health Care is typically the goal of using public money to finance health care. The country most often cited as adopting socialized medicine to achieve universal health care is the United Kingdom. USAGE OF THE TERM The term began as a Pejorative phrase first popularized in 1920s and 1930s United States politics by Conservative opponents of publicly operated Health Care with a hostility to programs similar in nature to Socialism and Communism . Publicly operated health care was first proposed during the Administration of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and later championed by many others, but ardently opposed by the American Medical Association (including distribution of posters to doctors with slogans such as "Socialized medicine ... will undermine the democratic form of government."Olivier Garceau, "Organized Medicine Enforces its 'Party Line'", Public Opinion Quarterly, September 1940, p. 416.) Hostility to socialism remains a common basis of objection to universal health care by those generally opposed to expansion of government social services and other redistributory policies.1 2 For example, Rudolph Giuliani , a Republican presidential candidate, in July 2007 in a campaign speech made a direct connection between socialized medicine and Socialism , saying "the American way is not single-payer, government-controlled anything. That's a European way of doing something; that's frankly a socialist way of doing something. That's why when you hear Democrats in particular talk about single-mandated health care, universal health care, what they're talking about is socialized medicine."http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/31/giuliani.democrats/index.html CNN, "Giuliani attacks Democratic health plans as 'socialist'", July 31, 2007. Some have pointed out that the U.S. government already operates public health care.3 That approach to health care is provided by U.S. Veterans Administration clinics and hospitals to former members of U.S. Military Service s.For comparison of the largely private U.S. health care system with the public health care system of Canada , see 4 Thus, the usage of the term "socialized" is inconsistent, as it is rarely used to describe the Veterans Administration or the Army Medical Service, which meet the definition of socialized medicine and which are proven to provide good care at low cost, nor to Medicaid or Medicare . 5For comparison of the largely private U.S. health care system with the public health care system of Canada , see 6 The term is widely used by the media and pressure groups. However, medical staff, most professionals in the field and international bodies such as the WHO tend to avoid its usage. Outside the U.S., the terms most commonly used are Universal Health Care or Public Health Care and have wide public support. People in the United Kingdom, for example, are overwhelmingly supportive of the National Health Service , leading a member of Margaret Thatcher 's government, Nigel Lawson , to described the NHS as a "national religion" because everyone believes in it. The Thatcher administration made only minor changes to the system, and although many state industries were privatized, the state health sector was not one of them. Those who use the term "socialized medicine" negatively often characterize the UK's NHS health care system as providing poor quality of service, with suffering patients having little or no choice. In practice, patients do have a choice of general practitioner, all of whom are self-employed or work in private partnerships employing all practice nurses, doctors and clerical staff. Many hospital services are sub-contracted to the private sector, patients can choose from a range of providers, and will soon be able to choose to use a private sector provider at public expense provided it matches NHS standards and prices. http://www.nhs.uk/aboutnhs/nhshistory/Pages/TheNHSfrom1998tothepresent.aspx International comparisons of quality of care and health outcomes generally rank the UK above the U.S. Health system attainment and performance in all Member States, ranked by eight measures, estimates for 1997 7 Critics also often claim that "socialized" or public medicine would introduce government bureaucracy to health and increase costs. However, the U.S. (with a semi-socialized model) spends more per capita on health than any other nation and more than twice as much as the country with the next highest level of spending (which has a form of universal health care). Administrative costs in the U.S. health care system are higher than in other countries and an important factor in U.S. spending, and administrative costs in the private sector are higher than in the public sector health care systemhttp://www.pnrec.org/2001papers/DaigneaultLajoie.pdf. One often-cited study by Harvard Medical School and the Canadian Institute for Health Information put the total administrative costs at 31 percent of U.S. health care spending. Costs of Health Administration in the U.S. and Canada Woolhandler, et al, NEJM 349(8) Sept. 21, 2003 SEE ALSO Other types of health care systems Related topics NOTES AND REFERENCES |
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