Every update on universal health care insurance I hear on the talk shows has a different opinion. According to some pundits, the countries that use socialized medicine have damaged their economies and are forced to ration medical care to their aging citizens. According to others, they see the advantage or bonus of socialized medicine and all its benefits and see none of the negative aspects of socialized medicine.
I’m in favor of a national health care system. However, we can be sure there are more ways to create a bad system that will be no better than what we have than there are to create a good system. We have to do this right or we are going to be stuck with the negative aspects of Universal Medical Care without all of the positives.
Few people believe that Universal healthcare will not create higher taxes. However, we are paying for our broken system already. If certain of those costs go away, we may wind up with more money in our pockets.
Under our current system, a patient who needs emergency medical services will almost certainly be treated whether or not he or she has the money to pay for the costs of the medical care. You pay for the care. The facility has to increase its charges. It gets the money from its paying patients to make up for the ones that don’t pay. At the same time, it ruins the credit of the patient who can’t write a check for the cost of the services.
Another negative aspect that is an obstacle some talk about is the drain on our economy that may be caused by those who lose their ambition because they get qualify for free health care. I suppose that only time will tell, but I think that if we have more healthy people more people will be available to work. Probably people that are more ambitious are unable to work because of poor health care than there are people who would become lazy when better health care is available to them.
The positives of socialized medicine include the lessening of employment discrimination for the older workers. If the burden of the cost if insurance were shifted to the government, older and sicker workers may be more employable. A small business owner who interviews an older or less healthy applicant, today may focus on how that applicant would raise their group medical insurance premiums and not on the skills and knowledge that person might bring to the job.
Older, more experienced workers will in many cases do a better job than less experienced workers and managers. This can increase the efficiency of a business and mean that the firm and our country moves forward faster than it would otherwise.
Potential entrepreneurs will be able to start their own business without leaving their health insurance behind. The fear of losing medical insurance has kept many people shackled to jobs that they have long ago outgrown. National medical care will perhaps allow some great man or woman to invent the next big thing, whatever that may be.
Today a parent may be unable to pay for both the food she or he needs to feed their children and the healthcare that they need. This can mean that this parent dies early leaving young boys and girls behind. A medical care system with good preventative care that is available to all can keep these parents around to rear their children and better prepare them to be productive citizens.
I think that what we all want is a stronger economy and a better country. Socialized medicine improves our country by making older, more productive employees more productive. It can also extend the time that some of our youth gets to spend with their parents and have a major impact on our future as a country.