Letter: Health care, vaccine separte issues

Phyllis Goldin made an astute observation last week when she elucidated the fact that the Obama administration dropped the ball attempting to acquire an adequate supply of the H1N1 vaccine.

Phyllis asserts that if we had a single payer universal healthcare system, we wouldn’t be in this mess. She also claims that Canada has acquired ample vaccine.

These assertions, however, have nothing to do with a government-run vs. a privately-run healthcare system.

The U.S. government is already in charge of the acquisition and distribution of the H1N1 vaccine, just as Canada’s government is responsible for theirs. The mechanisms in place to forecast, order and distribute vaccines under a public-run healthcare system will be no different than they are today.

The proposed healthcare reform does nothing to change current U.S. government bureaucracies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), or the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

These are the agencies that make the decisions for how mass immunizations will be carried out, and these agencies will continue to be responsible after healthcare reform takes place.

The only thing that will change following a healthcare takeover will be how immunizations are paid for.

A United States government-run healthcare system will never be a mirror image of Canada’s or Britain’s. These countries obviously have different governments with different agencies. They are also smaller and more manageable.

Additionally, unlike the U.S., Canada and Europe control their national borders and medical malpractice lawsuits.

The only aspects of healthcare that will be similar are the long waits and rationing.

If you already pay for health insurance, expect to pay a great deal more, and don’t expect a government takeover of our entire healthcare system to be any more efficient the next time we really do need a vaccine.

Tags: health care, h1n1 vaccine, letters to editor, opinion, politics