With the political campaign already under way for the next President of the United States, we are seeing candidates beginning to talk about their visions for healthcare — meaning national programs funded by the federal government and offered as a free gift to we the people. Our present flaxen cords will then become strong.

Recently I sat down and knocked out, in rather short order, 23 reasons that socialized medicine is a bad approach to healthcare. When I looked over the list, it became clear that most of my items stemmed from two primary objections: lack of agency and lack of accountability. Many of the problems inherent in socialized medicine may, unfortunately, already be seen in our current insured, Medicared health care system.

I would like to attempt to explain these problems, which, by the way, are common to all socialistic schemes, and then to offer a better solution. As I said, the primary objections are lack of agency and lack of accountability, and they are closely connected.

The Lord says in Doctrine and Covenants 101: 78, “That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.” In other words, we have been place here on earth to use our agency and be accountable for our own selves. Let me illustrate how we have strayed from those principles with a few items from my list.

First, when a patient visits a doctor on his own account, they create an agreement between them that the doctor will do his best to take care of the patient's medical needs and that in exchange the patient will pay him money. This agreement is not often stated in so many words, but it is implicit in the fact that the patient sought out that particular doctor and offered to pay for his services.

Frequently there is a handshake between them, but always there is a form provided wherein the doctor (or his office) states that he will provide services and expect monetary payment in exchange. This constitutes a contract between the party of the first part (the patient) and the party of the second part (the doctor).

When there is another party to this relationship, a government entity or an insurance company, for example, we have what is called a third-party payer. Now someone else is paying for the patient's care; now any moral contract between doctor and patient is much weaker because now the doctor is under contract to that third-party payer for fulfillment of his obligations.

But it is the patient who is the real third party now — in matters of his own health! The doctor is no longer strictly accountable to him. There is no obligation to see that the patient get “his money's worth” because the patient didn't give him any.

In a sense, the patient himself is no longer accountable for his own health either, especially under a system such as being proposed by one the candidates wherein health care would be mandatory. If the patient has no agency, he has no accountability.

Without accountability, there is no compelling reason for the doctor to do more than is required by the third-party payer (whether government agency or insurance company) to collect his payment. He doesn't have to “care” for the patient to get paid (although in our present semi-socialized system doctors are still pretty conscientious). He must instead, please the entity that is paying him. That's just the way it is.

The incentive is there, however, to do everything for which he can be reimbursed by the third party, whether it is strictly necessary or not, which creates waste. I am not accusing doctors of anything beyond human nature, but acknowledging that the temptation exists. When we lived in England, which has a socialized medical system, and my wife was going to have a baby, a doctor told her that if he delivered the baby, he would do everything possible to earn more money from it, even including doing an unnecessary Caesarian section so he could get an extra £4,000 from the government. He was honest enough to recommend we use a midwife.

Actually, it's not all gravy for the doctor either. In exchange for their loss of agency, their charges may be heavily discounted by the insurance companies, and it can take a long time to get paid. We have had a payment delayed for two years in our office, and someone who works in a hospital accounting office once let slip that it takes a year to receive a Medicare payment. I can't confirm that, but I don't have any reason to doubt it.

No One is Accountable

Well, can't the patient complain to someone if he's unhappy, even after having given away his agency? Not really. He can't complain to a governing medical body: Medical doctors are essentially self-governing. The American Medical Association, and the state licensing boards affiliated with it, like a union exist to protect their members. There are examples of medical ne'er-do-wells escaping any sanctions for years and years.

As for complaining to a government agency, one person among hundreds of millions is statistically nothing. And besides, government agencies are well-insulated from the masses and virtually unaccountable to anyone. Anyone who has worked for the federal government knows what a different world it is. (I certainly saw it when I worked there!) And in a fully socialized system, the patient has little agency to go elsewhere.

Government agencies are also the least likely to be up-to-date. Somehow the powers in charge don't have any reason to make sure the bureaucracies have the latest equipment, methods or training. There just isn't that same need to stay on top of the ball that is found in the competitive marketplace. The workers' pay seems to lag behind too. Plus it is usually extremely difficult to fire a government employee.

All this creates a certain listlessness in carrying out assigned duties and often an uncaring attitude toward the public. Bureaucracies are like unions in the sense that their primary focus is inward, on self-perpetuation, not service or efficiency. It seems that without the pressure of competition (which creates accountability to the buyer, who can exercise his agency), nothing is done well in our present telestial world.

Another thing that happens is that the doctor himself tends to become listless and uncaring. He can't have the same pride in his work as a mere functionary that he would as an independent professional. That's just natural. He's lost his agency along with his accountability. I saw this when I lived in England.

As I said earlier about government agencies, improvement is not a prime interest. They resist change. We already see this problem in the field of health care with the huge institutional resistance to new or alternative therapies or approaches. Not many years ago, using chelation therapy was enough to get a doctor disbarred, and the idea of candida albicans overgrowth was seen as a dangerous myth. It took years for these ideas to be accepted. There are dozens of such examples. The establishment always resists change, and the medical establishment is no exception.

Now think what it would be like under a government-controlled medical system. Pure inertia.

Our Way and the Amish Way

Let me say something here about the Amish, of whom President Faust spoke about so glowingly in his last general conference address. I lived amongst the Amish for many years. They don't believe in insurance; they self-insure. If someone's barn burns down, the community helps build a new one. If someone needs emergency medical care, the community comes together to help pay for it. But they don't often need expensive medical treatments because they don't indulge in all the foolishness we do. And living a simpler life, their money seems to go further.

Most importantly, they care for each other. Under this system, everyone thinks of his brother like unto himself (see Jacob 2:17). This is the principle upon which Zion is to be built. We've gotten far away from that in our insulated, insured lives.

Now let's consider the following data: health insurance premiums increased almost 74 percent from 2001 to 2006, while U.S. median income increased less than 12 percent over that period (1). Health care now consumes one out of every six dollars in our economy, twice as much as it did only a few years ago (2). It's completely out of control.

What's Wrong with Our Health Care?

I suggest there's a better way. First, I want to make a distinction between health care, which is the buzzword we use, and medical care, which is what we actually are talking about most of the time when we use that buzzword. Medical care is really sickness care. It reminds me of that old poem in Especially for Mormons about the ambulance down in the valley versus the fence around the cliff top.

By the way, do you know that longevity in the U.S. lags way behind other developed countries? We are now 42nd (3). Did you know that average height (which measures how healthy we were during our growing years) also lags behind? (4) And yet we brag that we have the world's best health care (medical care). We do spend more than twice as much on health care per capita as median amount of other developed countries (5), but that's all that stands out about it. All this has come about as the government has gotten more and more involved.

Put it all together: it doesn't work! That's why we have more and more disease and more and more expense every year. We are chasing down the wrong path as fast as we can go, and we'll never reach our destination. Unfortunately, as long as people tell themselves “it's paid for by my insurance,” they won't look around for better options. They'll stay on their endless, futile quest for health within the system, and they'll welcome the bondage of medical socialism (“universal coverage”) as a way to not have to pay anything for their care (the desire to get something for nothing, and things will get even worse.

When we give up our agency and have nothing to say about so personal a thing as our own health we are truly in bondage.

A more excellent way

Paying for medical care is a complex problem, but we can, at least start to solve the current healthcare crisis by taking better care of our bodies. Stop buying in to the advertisements for processed food and for over-the-counter drugs and prescription drugs. Stop relying on the FDA. Haven't you noticed how many drugs have to be taken off the market despite FDA approval (after hundreds of millions, even billions, in profits were first made)?

Eat simple foods that don't have a whole list of artificial additives. President Ezra Taft Benson, as President of the Quorum of the Twelve, said, “In general, the more food we eat in its natural state and the less it is refined without additives, the healthier it will be for us.”(6) Eat fresh food, not canned or processed. Support natural, organic growers. Organic costs more, but you could make up for that by eating less — we all could. And you'd get more nutrition and less junk to insult your body and create illness.

I have seen over and over again how effective it is to “cleanse the inner vessel” according to natural methods as a vital first step to health and vigor, eat wisely according to the Word of Wisdom, and to use gentle, natural, non-intrusive methods in case of sickness — herbs, mild food, essential oils, chiropractic, acupuncture and so on. In addition, a skilled practitioner can even elicit true emotional healing — all without the need for symptom-suppressing drugs. It's a better way to live healthy and to shake off the ever-strengthening cords of socialism.

Many of our illnesses can be prevented by healthy living. I urge you to break free of the strong cords of socialized bondage and look around at the alternatives. Live the way the Lord has counseled. Stop fighting illness and, instead, create health!