Is Goverment Universal Healthcare the Answer?
The two countries most often cited by Universal
Healthcare advocates — Canada and the UK — both finance their government
healthcare systems with massive subsidies from exporting oil.
The NHS in the UK has been losing doctors, closing offices, and rationing care
for the past 5-10 years — because spending has gone out of control and revenue
from the North Sea oil fields have peaked.
The U.S. is not an oil exporter — quite the contrary. We don’t have loads of
government money sitting around waiting to be spent — we have massive budget
deficits, and absolutely overwhelming entitlement deficits.
The problem with healthcare is **NOT** how many people have/don’t have
insurance. The problem is sky-rocketing costs. When businesses cancel / trim
health benefits, they always cite costs that are rising 3-4 times the rate of
inflation. Anyone and everyone in the U.S. can **buy** health insurance — they
just can’t afford to. Its a cost problem, not an availability problem
There is no credible argument that the U.S. government, an entity known to
spend $2 billion on an airplane and $10,000 on coffee makers, is going to
control costs. Congress just spent over $36 BILLION (with a "B") to
build a visitors center at the US Capital. There are no healthcare companies
that spend $36 billion on one building.
Has everyone seen the disastrous care the US government provides for our
soldiers?
The U.S. consolidated all its disaster response agencies into the Department of
Homeland Security… Ask the folks in New Orleans how well that worked out.
And if the government takes over healthcare — that means decisions over what
procedures are covered / not covered becomes a political issue. Roe V Wade gets
overturned by checkbook instead of by law — remember, the government would
control ALL payments to ALL doctors.
Healthcare costs are out of control and need to be addressed. But as the
Hippocratic Oath says "First, do no harm". Don’t make a bad situation
worse by putting spendthrift politicians in charge of our health.
