Bribes for health care are alive and well in Hungary:
Hungarians grew up giving communist-era doctors what they call “gratitude money” to secure comforts not provided by the state. Hungarians now pay doctors as much as 100 billion forint under the table a year, Health Minister Agnes Horvath says. The practice inflates Hungary’s health budget as doctors prescribe unnecessary procedures in hopes of maximizing illicit income, she says.
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Frederich Hayek was right! Socialism DOES breed corruption and immorality.
My, my. **Profit motive** leading to corruption? Sounds like capitalism at work, not socialism. I guess that means you, Kevin, are against captialism?
Another **controversial** post by KevinMD.
The doctor has the personal skills which are of value to the patient and it is human nature for him to expect value in return for value. That is neither capitalism nor socialism, just human nature. In the capitalist system this natural exchange occurs staightforward and no corruption is necessary. It is only in the socialist system than an illegal bribe is necessary for a value for value exchange to occur. Such systems further encourage corruption by giving government officials more control over the economic life. We see it here as well wherever government regulation occurs. If I need a certificate of need from you to build a nursing home, then you have something of value I want, and it is natural for you to want something of value in exchange (a bribe). That is not to say that all regulation is bad, but each assertion of government control in the economy ought to be weighed against the corrupting tendency of the concentration of arbitrary power (along with all the other negative effects).
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