Healthcare is very important. It's literally critical to the health and wealth of America. We all want good healthcare, and we all want everyone to be able to receive it. I believe the key to understanding the healthcare debate is to determine the consequences that will take place once certain action is implemented.
On the surface, the idea of free healthcare to all American citizens is a great thing. There is no doubt that for anyone to be able to go to the doctor or to the emergency room free of charge is something that is desirable, and I believe all Americans think that ideal is a good thing. The problem with the universal healthcare debate is that for so many people it ends there. That is all they see. Free healthcare for everyone. That is good. End of story.
Unfortunately that is not all there is to it. Healthcare will never be free, at least not until doctors start volunteering and manufacturers of machines donate their inventions, and contractors build hospitals as a charity. There is cost for healthcare, lots of cost, and it has to be paid for somehow. And with the idea universal healthcare comes the reality that tax payers must pay for it.
So how can we reallocate the money we've paid in taxes that are being used for other things to now be used for heathcare? We can't. The fact is that even if we cut government overhead in one area to spend it on healthcare we are really just adding back that overhead because the government will be running it...so all we've done is shifted government employees from one sector to another. The only way to pay for healthcare is to raise taxes, plain and simple. So, that's you're first major consequence of healthcare, higher taxes.
The second major consequence of universal healthcare is the deterioration of service. If every patient is viewed the same and doctors basically become government employees then what is their motivation for providing excellent service? I know there is an ideal that they will be motivated by helping others, and while their motivation will in all likelihood be greater than the government worker at the DMV, the service will decline. Some doctor's view of their jobs will change because of the loss of capitalism in healthcare, and with that their practice of medicine will suffer....and we don't want that. Since everyone can receive healthcare free of charge there will be 30-40% more people in that waiting room. Not just the 10% that don't have healthcare now, but the additional people who have insurance but may not go to the doctor when they have the slightest cold because they don't want to pay higher rates or a deductible. There will be lack of privacy in hospital rooms and long waits for surgeries and treatments. Look at Canada and England's universal healthcare systems: 65% of Americans survive cancer for 5 years after being diagnosed compared to 46% in England and 42% in Canada, 93% of Americans diagnosed with diabetes received treatment within the first six months compared to 15% in England and 43% in Canada, 77% of Americans who are referred to a medical specialist are seen within one month compared to 40% in England and 43% in Canada.
The third major consequence of universal healthcare is losing our access to the best doctors and medical machines in the world. Once the government controls healthcare they will set the wages for doctors. So the doctor that provides great service and does great work will be making the same and the doctor who does just okay work. The foreign doctor who came to America to make $1,000,000 a year will leave because they would rather be in their home country if they are only going to make a certain wage. There is a reason why leaders from around the world come to America for surgeries, it's because we have the best doctors. And the best doctors come here from around the world to make the most money. They will leave America and that combined with having to cover more people and less 'rich people' wanting to become doctors will create such a need for doctors that medical schools will have to lower their admission standards, thereby creating a lesser medical field. When the government sets prices on what they will pay for machines, companies who manufacture those machines will spend far less time creating new ideas for them because the pay is less. Less inventions and technology will be developed because of this. Let's use England and Canada again: there are 71 MRI scanners in America per one million people compared to 14 in England and 18 and Canada.
The fourth major consequence of universal healthcare is having the government control our lives through it. The cost of healthcare will be large, and with a certain budget there will be strict guidelines for doctors to follow in order to keep costs down. One of these guidelines will in all likelihood be that once a person reaches a certain age they should not receive as much attention because they are so close to the end of their life. So the heart-bypass that Grandpa needs will be pushed to the end of the line, Grandma will have to wait on her hip replacement, and after a few days of struggling in the hospital a great Aunt of yours might have the plug pulled by a doctor with orders from Uncle Sam.
JB
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