One Way to Keep Health Costs Down: Draft the Health Workers
A proposal in Germany to abolish compulsory military service is drawing major opposition from unlikely quarters—the thousands of hospitals and other public-service providers where most young German men end up fulfilling their draft duties… More than 150,000 men out of 226,000 deemed fit to serve in 2009 filed as conscientious objectors, slating them for civilian-servant jobs.
Full article on the proposed end to Germany’s military draft.
The duration of the draft service obligation is short. At six months, it is too short to adequately train soldiers so it serves little defensive purpose. Thus, if Germany continues to require a draft, it amounts to little more than indentured servitude for the benefit of third-parties.
What do they have them doing? Janitorial work? I don’t see how you could train anyone to do anything remotely useful in less than a year. The only options are cooks, janitors, and manual labor (in which case why a draft? why not just say, “You gotta come work for us for free.”). This seems like a really large expense for a very small benefit.
Given the steep cuts in Medicare fees that are apparently planned, the government may have to draft the doctors. And nurses. And other paramedical personnel.
Ken, actually many doctors join the military to pay for medical school. They do their minimum and then leave for private practice. Why don’t they expand that? Pay for medical school for doctors who dedicate their practice to Medicare and Medicaid patients.