About Me

Name: voice_of_reason
Biography
Loading...

Create Your Own Blog Find Other Townhall Blogs

Comments

NYTimes: American doctors flee ObamaCare

Posted by voice_of_reason on Saturday, August 15, 2009 9:14:35 AM
Actually, this article is about an oddly under-reported story in the New York Times
 

In the ongoing debate on HealthCare, proponents of socialized medicine speak glowingly of the Cuban model. In fact, wasn't there a mockumentary made by some unkempt, pudgy sicko in which the Cuban medical system was held up as an example of a successful non-profit health system?
 
The Editors at the New York Times probably didn't realize the incongruity of publishing a story about Cuban doctors, anxious to flee the worker's paradise, while the editors advocate that the U.S. follow that exalted model.
 
Here are some amazing excerpts from the New York Times article -- italicized for your reading pleasure!
 
While the rest of the country is suffering from a shortage of primary care physicians, Miami is awash with Cuban doctors who have defected in recent years. By some estimates, 6,000 medical professionals, many of them physicians, have left Cuba in the last six years.
 
VoR: No worries, we will need all these low-paid doctors to fulfil the goals of ObamaCare
 
Cuban doctors have been fleeing to South Florida since Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, but the pace intensified after 2006, when the Department of Homeland Security began a program that allowed Cuban medical personnel “who study or work in a third country under the direction of the Cuban government” to travel to the United States legally. The program has effectively turned a crowning achievement of Cuba’s foreign policy on its head.
 
VoR: hmm ... so, the plans devised by our brilliant socialist comrades sometimes backfire .. or have unintended consequences? Who'da thunk it?
 
In the 50 years since the revolution, Cuba has sent more than 185,000 health professionals on medical missions to at least 103 countries. About 31,000, most of them doctors, are in Venezuela, where they work in exchange for cheap oil and other trade benefits for the Cuban government.
 
VoR: oh, you mean that Venezuela, the other 'paradise', can't produce its own doctors? So, they trade their Govt-owned oil for Cuban doctors?
 
And more are in the pipeline. Cuba’s official news agency reported that more than 25,000 health professionals graduated this year, “the largest graduation ever.”
 
VoR: it's those pesky incentives, again. What is it about humans that they will do whatever they can to improve their lives?
 
But many doctors on the island are now vying to be tapped for an international mission, in part because they know that no matter where they are sent, they will be one step closer to a visa to the United States.
 
VoR: that's so unfair! Why can't they just gracefully accept their place in a non-profit utopia?
 
The missions have earned Cuba much recognition, goodwill and bargaining power. President Obama told reporters at the end of a recent hemispheric meeting in Trinidad that he found it “interesting” to learn from Latin American leaders “about the thousands of doctors from Cuba that are dispersed all throughout the region, and upon which many of these countries heavily depend.”
 
VoR: let's forget about the reasons why these doctors are dispersed all throughout the region, shall we? Let's ignore the fact that this diaspora is a symptom of a disease - the serious misallocation of resources caused by central planning (a.k.a socialism).
 
Yet for many Cuban doctors, who earn the equivalent of $25 a month, the lure of a life of freedom and opportunities in the United States is too strong to resist. And so these children of the revolution, educated by a Communist regime to reject capitalism and embrace socialism, have ended up in Miami, often tending to elderly Cubans who fled the island before the doctors were born.
 
VoR: strangely, the New York Times writer is silent about the kind of failure that this represents.

Many have been able to obtain licenses and practice medicine. Others have chosen to settle for careers in the medical field but not as physicians, and some work in fields that have nothing to do with medicine.

“I know neurosurgeons who are working in warehouses or factories or as gas attendants,” said Julio César Alfonso, 40, who graduated from medical school in Cuba in 1992 and works as a clinic manager in Miami. “But I know many more who are working as nurses, medical assistants and technicians.”
 
VoR: the misallocation continues. Generations of bright, talented people ... lost ... victims of a failed ideology.
 
Aside from old books, Cuban medical students and doctors must contend with a lack of modern equipment and, often, of drugs and diagnostic tools taken for granted in developed countries. But many expatriate doctors say their dealings with patients in Cuba were more humane and less rushed than they are in the United States.
 
VoR: the New York Times looks for ... and finds ... a silver lining in HealthCare, Cuban-style. No modern equipment, drugs or diagnostic tools. But hey, who needs those extravagances when there's lots of humanity and empathy to go around?
 
Their loss is Miami’s gain. Just about any hospital in Miami can boast of having highly trained Cuban doctors working as nurses or medical assistants or even lab technicians.
 
VoR: so, those evil capitalists in Miami -- without any pretense of central planning -- were able to properly allocate these bright, talented people while their sanctimoniously not-for-profit, socialized country of birth couldn't?
 
Of course, the New York Times continues to be a proponent for the very system that causes its best and brightest people to head for the boats.
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (1) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Solving the Energy Crisis, Step 1: Shoot Self in Foot

Posted by voice_of_reason on Monday, August 11, 2008 8:24:02 PM
Confession: Although I am an unabashed conservative, I sometimes enjoy reading Tom Friedman's articles in the NYTimes.

However, he is starting to resemble a stopped clock. And that may be the right metaphor for those who see everything from a "Oil bad, green good" perspective. In his August 9th article titled "Flush with Energy" Tom waxes eloquent about toilets in Greenland, bikes in Denmark and the stupidity of Americans. Please note that I have nothing against either conservation or the development of renewable energy sources. I am all for efficiency, productivity and tapping new sources of energy. The solutions to our energy woes will truly be a journey of a thousand steps, encompassing short-term and long-term solutions. If solutions do come, they will come mostly from the private sector. The speed of innovative development will depend largely on our Govt's ability to get out of the way.

Single Issue Greenies such as Tom seem to suggest that we begin our journey by pointedly shooting ourselves in the foot, by raising taxes on energy.

Reading Tom Friedman's article led to some interesting questions:

* 50% of Danes go to work or school on bicycles - is that out of choice or from necessity, born from $10/gal gas? What portion of their productive days is spent riding around on bicycles? How many Danes are compelled to move closer to their public sector jobs because of the high price of gas? What are the unintended consequences of such a migration? Has there been any impact on the prices of real estate? Oh, scratch that last one - no one can afford to own real estate 'over there'. They are all living in rent-controlled heaven!

* A somewhat random thought: is the Govt-inspired bike-riding in Denmark part of their Universal Health Care system? If so, I can think of an American Presidential Candidate who would surely be for higher gasoline taxes. Except, he will call it a Windfall Tax on Big Oil's profits.

* Denmark was 'lucky to discover some oil in the North Sea'. How exactly does one get lucky in the North Sea? Could there have been some off-shore drilling involved? Nah, couldn't be -- since Tom is decidedly against such activities!

* Did Danes suffer from their government shaping the market with energy taxes? Tom asks a minister of climate and energy, and the answer is a predictable "No". How many ministers would own up to the fact that their precious taxes sap the productivity from their economy.

* While Tom raves that "Energy technology exports rose 8 percent in 2007 compared with a 2 percent rise in 2007 for Danish exports as a whole" I would ask -- "Could it be that the high energy taxes sapped their productivity, causing the rest of their exports to languish?" While Tom raves about the growth of one sector of the Danish economy, I hear the sound of overtaxed Danes groaning under the weight of tax policies which burden every aspect of their productive lives, but create a green-tinted utopia for one-issue journalists to praise.

* I have nothing against Danes (or Americans) devising efficient ways to recycle waste heat from coal-fired power plants. But, if those methods are created by tax-extortions, they come at too high a cost. The ancillary technology benefits that may derive from such expenditure (yes, our Govt-funded space program gave us Tang, teflon and dehydrated food) do not compensate for the drag on the rest of the productive economy.

* To use one of Tom's attention grabbing tricks: Quick! Name an innovation that you associate with Denmark in areas such as electronics, biotechnology, software, material science, medicine, pharmaceuticals .. Did you say Windmills, Cheese and those funny wooden clog-shoes? Hmm .. so, they've gone from windmills to wind-turbines.

* Quick! Name the European country that has successfully used its Energy Tax revenue to come up with an alternative fuel that is better than gasoline .. Did you say "Denmark", Tom? Oops, sorry, that was a trick question. The reality is that when such an alternative is found or created, it will likely be in a free-enterprise country -- and there are fewer of those around. And, we are in serious danger of losing the last remaining bastion of said free-enterprise.

* So, Denmark leads and America lags in wind turbines? OK, we concede that segment to them, until there is a real market for such technology. At that time, American innovation, backed by real-world, market-driven capital will clean their clocks. That is, unless foolish, one-issue greenies like Tom Friedman and Al Gore have their way with our economy. If that happens, we too will have windmills .. and a lower standard of living.

* Unemployment in Denmark is 1.6% -- that sounds wonderful! But, what percentage of working-age Danes are feeding off the Govt-trough, in their non-productive roles as tax collectors, bureaucrats, politicians, welfare-statists and other vermin?
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (3) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive
« Previous1Next »