From the Editor

Five years ago I was hooked up to a machine pulsing electricity into my arm while rain water spat on me, the wires and the apparatus itself. But that tale will have to wait for a moment.

You see, unless there’s an unexpected shift in Washington, the healthcare marketplace opens today.

Yeah, yeah—you either consider this the beginning of the end for America or you’re breathing “finally,” with a sigh of relief. Well, I’m not about to dive into the argument abyss.

To put it as simply as possible, the Affordable Care Act hardly represents a turn toward socialism, considering that the plan is based upon an idea drafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation in 1989. In addition, it keeps private health insurance companies in place.  True universal healthcare works neatly when it is fully supported, despite claims by pundits on the right. And the very real concerns of those who will be forced to purchase a plan under ACA’s individual mandate in recessionary times doesn’t enter into the equation—at least in Washington.

I find the debate predictably partisan. Republicans introduced the mandate and tried to pass measures including the provision. Meanwhile, candidate Barack Obama opposed the idea.

If one is for, the other is against—nothing more. Yet at one time or another, both sides considered aspects of the act a travesty … if you can really believe either side on the issue.

As far as I know, it may be the perfect solution to this nation’s out of control healthcare costs. According to a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development based upon 2010 data, spending on healthcare in this nation amounted to $8,233 per person—more than double the amount coughed up by stable European economies. On the other hand, it is a forced hybrid between universal care and the private mess we’re already in.

Perhaps it’s the worst of both worlds.

Most Americans agree our current system is broken. We pay more than people in most other first world nations. In return, our systems offer fewer doctors and fewer hospital beds per capita than many other “westernized” countries. Our overall health and life expectancy is no better, as a result. Republicans, Democrats, independents and the handful claiming affiliation in third, fourth and fifth parties admit the numbers prove a fix is necessary somewhere.

Do I know where? Hardly.

What I do know is this: after listening to anyone with a partisan stake discuss “socialized” medicine, it is clear they either read into the experience selectively or deliberately misrepresent from the outset.

I spent three years living in the Czech Republic, a nation offering universal healthcare. On the state plan (there were options) we did not pay anywhere close to the monthly fees mentioned in ACA gold, bronze or whatever plans. The cost was included in our taxes, which also subsidized public transportation and other services. Every single taxpayer contributed.

Keep in mind, the nation included entrepreneurs, multi-national corporations, mom and pop shops. There were (and are) rich and poor, opportunities and risk, rules and regulations—all the features of capitalism. In the Czech Republic, as in other European countries, they considered healthcare a basic right, rather than a commodity available to those who could afford it.

No comparison with the U.S. implied; the economies and circumstances of each nation differs greatly. What is right there may not work here.

Is universal care—“socialized” medicine—effective? Certainly, judging from my experience and the lives of people in France, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, the Scandinavian countries …

Is it inefficient in some cases?

Well, rain began to spray through an open window as I was attached to that machine, pumping electricity into my arm as part of therapy for a torn rotator cuff. The facility, built during the Communist era, was not air conditioned, so staff members routinely propped windows open in the summer—wind, rain or sun. Of course, when you are connected to electricity, rain is a concern.

My therapist rushed into the room and slammed the window shut. “Is bad for machine,” she explained in broken English.

Fine—I might have been fried. But the entire course of therapy sessions, the MRI and the surgery (had I opted for it) cost no more than $5 out of pocket.

I should have asked for surgery. I can’t afford it here, even under ACA.