Helen Raleigh explains in a Federalist column why fans of socialized medicine should proceed with caution.
Self-identified Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is touring the country and selling her promise of a socialist paradise with guaranteed jobs, free college, and of course, free healthcare for all. By sheer coincidence, a public health crisis is unfolding in China right now which shows the deep-rooted flaws of socialized medicine.
In China, vaccine production is heavily subsidized by the government and vaccines are given to children through the government’s mandatory vaccination program. Sounds pretty good, right? But last Friday, Chinese Food and Drug authorities revealed that one Chinese drug company, Jilin-based Changchun Changsheng Bio-technology, has sold about 252,600 substandard DPT vaccines — used to prevent diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus — to the Shandong Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a government agency in charge of public health for about 100 million people. …
… Unfortunately, Changchun Changsheng Bio-technology isn’t the first Chinese drug company that has pushed substandard products to Chinese children through a government compulsory health program. Chinese children were frequently given inferior vaccines in the past. …
… Had these drug companies operated in a free market like the U.S., they probably would stop production immediately, face criminal charges, and quickly be forced out of business. Competition in a free market will weed out companies that attempt to sell inferior products and thus leave consumers with better choices.
But in China, with a government that controls medical resources and subsidizes the cost, there is little accountability.
