Minor Thoughts from me to you

The Result of Socialism: Only Healthy People Allowed

Australia has socialized its medical services. Australian friends tell me that providing basic medical care for free is the only fair and just thing to do. Well, how fair and just is this?

A German doctor hoping to gain permanent residency in Australia said Friday he will fight a decision by the immigration department to deny his application because his son has Down syndrome.

Bernhard Moeller came to Australia with his family two years ago to help fill a doctor shortage in a rural area of Victoria state.

His temporary work visa is valid until 2010, but his application for permanent residency was rejected this week. The immigration department said Moeller's 13-year-old son, Lukas, "did not meet the health requirement."

"A medical officer of the Commonwealth assessed that his son's existing medical condition was likely to result in a significant and ongoing cost to the Australian community," a departmental spokesman said in a statement issued Thursday by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

"This is not discrimination. A disability in itself is not grounds for failing the health requirement -- it is a question of the cost implications to the community," the statement said.

This is the end result of socialized medicine. Everyone will be judged based on how much they cost the community. Do you cost too much? Goodbye, nice knowing you. It's impossible to preserve individual human dignity and worth as long as the community has to pay for that individuals. Communities will quickly find ways to exclude the costliest people and include the cheapest people. A system that was supposed to remove the "indignity" of making people pay their own quickly degrades to a system that values people solely on the basis of a cost / benefit analysis.

Ironic, no?