Venezuela: A single-payer’s dream come true

Many would like this day to come to the US:

President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday his government will nationalize Venezuela’s privately owned hospitals and clinics if they fail to reduce health care costs.

“If the owners of the private clinics don’t want to obey the laws, then the private clinics will be nationalized,” Chavez said in a nationally televised speech. “They will become part of the public health service.”

Venezuela has a two-tiered health system in which wealthier, insured patients often can afford prompter, better treatment at private hospitals.

“This is the evil of capitalism,” Chavez said of the health care costs at private clinics. “We have to regulate this progressively, transforming the savage capitalist market into a market of solidarity.”

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