Universal Health Care

Chances are all of you are familiar with the term, if not all of the details. What are the two main reasons for nationalizing our health care system? The current system is expensive and there are millions of people who are currently uninsured. If I addressed every single point associated with this issue, this would be a book, and you guys would stop reading it right about... now. So we will just stick to the two main points.

Cost-
American spending on healthcare in the world. True. What exactly are we getting for all of this money spent? Longer lives, peace of mind, convenience, shorter wait times... to name a few. Oh, and I did I mention a mortality rate almost double any other country? (we also have the highest infant death rate due to drug addiction and substance abuse, so if infant death is taken out, the numbers are actually double any other country) What does this mean? Well, let's just say that if you come down with a life-threatening sickness or disease in America, your chances of surviving are twice as good as if you were any other country. Why else would people have "medical vacations" to America from other coutries that have Universal healthcare?

So we have the Cadillac of health care systems. As with any other product, you must pay more for a better product. Look at the wide spectrum of care we have. Walk-in clinics with less than an hour of wait time, prescriptions filled while you shop, on site diagnosis of many common illness, minimal copays, etc. As for the cost of prescriptions, many times the cost of common medicines contribute to research and development for designer drugs used to treat AIDS, Cancer, etc. So yes, you may a little more for your Anti-Biotic, but we develop drugs that other countries could never even dream of.

So what would happen if we made healthcare available to everyone, payer and non-payer alike? Costs would immediately go through the roof. If you have a non-contributor on free system, what is the incentive to keep costs down? Right now co-pays and caps keep you in check, and keep costs down. Example: If you have the flu and have someone drive you to the walk-in clinic, you pay your $15 co-pay and get seen at minimal cost to the system. If you are not a contributor, you may just decide to call an ambulance and go to the emergency room any many times the cost, just because you can. I'm not even touching the behaviors that would jack costs up, such as smoking, drinking, obesity, promiscuity, etc. Responsible contributors lead more healthy life styles because they know that eventually they have to pay for their decisions.

People Currently Uninsured-

The 2005 Census revealed that at the time there were approximately 47 million uninsured Americans. Wow! This is a major problem! How can the most prosperous and generous country in history let this happen?! Slow down... let's look at these numbers a little closer...

Out of the 47 million, over 10 million are not legal citizens. These 10 million use our policies to take advantage of our compassion and drive costs up for the rest of us by going to the emergency room every time they have a headache.

So now we are down to 37 million uninsured legal citizens. According to the same Census report, there are 8.3 million uninsured who make between $50k and 74,999 per year and 8.74 million uninsured who make more than $75k per year. So that approximately 17 million people who could more than afford healthcare. These are mainly people who are in good health and don't see the point to insurance, or the very rich who just pay out of pocket, or people who would rather just gamble on their health.

Where are we now? Around 20 million people left to cover. Doesn't sound quite as bad as the nearly 50 million, does it? Now consider the cost of covering these last 20 million people. How much does health insurance cost. On average, no more than your Comcast triple play monthly bill. We spend more on cell phones, cable, and internet than we spend on health insurance. You cannot tell me that all 20 million people cannot afford health insurance. Many of them just have their priorities all wrong. So let's say that 5 million people absolutely cannot afford health insurance. That is less than 2% of our nation's populous.

So why should we ruin the world's greatest health care system for such a small percentage of Americans who could be helped through charity or outreach? Remember: healthcare is not a right, it is a privilege. Once again, politicians are trying to scare you into a policy that limit even more of your freedoms, increase taxes and government spending, and give more bureaucrats power over your very life. Count me out.

Stay tuned for part 2: The many disadvantages of Universal Healthcare.