Do You Really Want Universal Health Care?
What About the Rationing, Long Waiting Lists and the Lack of Freedom?
I am in agreement that improvements need to happen in our health care system and I also believe that everyone should have access to quality health care, but how? And who will pay? Where does the responsibility lie?
Universal health care sounds great on the surface and at one time I would have supported it, but now I'm feeling differently. If the government were in charge, rationing would set in with limits on what kind of care was available, and the waiting times would be horrendous. With government health care there would be little or no incentive for doctors to provide the best, most efficient care possible and scientists would be less apt to advance and invent without a reward for their hard work. The point is - competition in the private sector gives us more choices, higher quality and lower prices. If the government were in charge, what motivation would there be for them to do it best? Look at how well they manage government housing, among other things.
Additionally, I don't think it's anyone else's responsibility to pay for my health care, especially if I've made poor choices like smoking, overeating, drinking in excess, etc. And why should I be forced to pay the increased costs for someone less healthy than myself? Free health care is not free and I can only imagine how much our taxes would go up should universal health care become a certainty. Someone has to pay and that someone is usually the little guy with big daddy government making the calls on who gets what, when and how much; there's no freedom or power in that.
20/20 made some great points during their special and one in particular made me cringe with personal reflection. The discussion centered on health insurance. With health insurance we don't really feel like we're paying because they are and due to that we don't really think about the expenses; the result is that we end up spending more, driving up costs for everyone. After all, why worry if someone else is paying? Most of us don't know the expenditures associated with an office visit, surgery, etc because all we're thinking about is the co-payment or deductible.
The reason this put me to shame is because I recently received an unexpected 1,000 bill for an MRI my daughter needed. We argued with our insurance company until they paid, but we ended up with the bulk of the payment and had no idea until we received the bill. That was irresponsible on our part because we should have known, but if insurance was paying, what did we care? And we didn't, until we were responsible for the big payment.
Perhaps we should care because awareness equals empowerment. Do you really want to be dependent on the government for something as serious as health care? Would you really trust their efficiency and quality? Or do you want choices, which would put some of the power in your hands, instead of the governments.
Published by Donna H. Davey
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Why We Don't Want Universal Health CareI might sound like a pessimist, but there are things we need to consider before jumping into this decision- Health Care in Canada Do We Really Want This in the United StatesWith Presidential Elections a little over a year away. Do we really want the same kind of health system as Canada
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9 Comments
Post a Commentso you are a conservatist? you seem to be against democrats who are promoting universal health care but i would say give them a chance. our government and country is in severe need of change in many areas and a change in the party that inhabits the white house may generate these changes. it is obvious that much of what has occurred over the past seven years in D.C. has not neccesarily been positive, and it is time for this to change. if only if a perfect candidate would come out of the woodwork to rid America of its problems--not likely, but i guess what i'm trying to say is what we've been doing has been cutting it.
How much money are the fatcats sucking out of the HMOs while the average Joe/Jane get stuck getting claims and health coverage denied? The private companies made HOW MUCH PROFIT- it should be not-for-profit. Doctors can be paid handsomely for their effort while still being non-profit. WAKE UP
How can ANYONE trust insurance companies (and just waht do you think HMOs are)??? Wake up people. The age of this country's population is getting OLDER and OLDER, treatments are getting more elaborate and more EXPENSIVE, and Bush wants to keep the 20,000,000 illegals here. Do you think they'll pay enough into private coverage to keep it all afloat?
Maybe we should ship OLD people to another country once they get sick?
Wasn't it Nixon who first sided with privatization to and got paid big for it? Along with ALL the other politicians- clinton, bush, rudy, and THOMPSON, one of the lobbyists!
Time for this country to stop looking for a pill to cure them and start PREVENTITIVE,
Is the government efficient at anything? Hell no I don't want them being responsible for anymore than they already are (and that's too much already). Great article.
I have medical insurance... Ha..Ha... They agreed to pay 100% when I had surgery on my hand and then declined to pay when it was done. I am not in favor of government health care, however. It might have taken months or even years to get my hand fixed. Competition, caps on malpractice lawsuits, and better insurance coverage are much better answers than another bureaucracy. Good article!
First of all, we already do have government-run health care programs in the U.S. in the form of Medicare and SCHIP. They are hardly what I would call unmitigated disasters. One main reason health care is so expensive in this country is that the insured pay for insurance companies' bureaucracy. Furthermore, insurance companies' prime directive is profit - in a nutshell, this means the more claims they deny, the more money they make. In other words, it is their interest to pass the burden of paying onerous medical bills onto the patient. The result is people not getting the medical care they need because they can't afford it. And that's wrong.
We are against universal healthcare too. Good article Donna, as usual.
This is an interesting article, Donna. I can see it from both sides. I grew up on free health care in the UK. My family and I received good health care. We were not dictated to as to what we could and could not receive from the government. We received whatever we needed to help us overcome any health problems. My family have had to face some pretty horrific procedures, but every procedure was free. I can say "free" because that is what it was. That is what British taxes pay for. Homeless, unemployed, or working people are all treated for free. You never receive a medical bill unless you go private. But I can see how some people over here are worried about this issue, if they have not experienced universal health care and the benefits it can provide.
Sophie
The answer to your title is "NO." However, I would like to see all Americans have access to healthcare. I just don't believe the government should be in charge of it. Yuck!
I am against universal Healthcare. It is a sham. Did you see the first part of Stossels's program on Healthcare? It focused on Michael Moore's movie and Cuba.
I suppose I am somewhat prejudiced being of Cuban descent and knowing what really goes on over there. The Healthcare system is a racket and the Cuban people are treated like rats.
I am against government being in control of anything because we, the people, become dependent on the government and are at their beck and call.
Pay as you go and create a system of competition between physicians and the costs go down.
That's my 2 cents.