ABSTRACT
In the face of soaring medical costs, some media reports have been suggesting that we reevaluate the medical system we had during the planned-economy period, and that we give it high marks. As a result, this has triggered a kind of nostalgia among people for the old days. The idea is that if we went back to a system of publicly funded medicine, with universal coverage (including labor-protection medical care), we would get rid of the problems people currently face-namely, that they can’t get in to see a doctor unless they pay dearly for the privilege. The situation is not as simple as it seems.
