“When they favor the access of other people to
education and health care, the countries of the North not only demonstrate
generosity or solidarity, but also implement the principles of respecting and
promoting human rights.” Omar Bongo, former President of Gabon
At
some point in American history it was decided that if a person’s house were to
catch fire it was an obligation of the state to douse it regardless of whether
or not that person had any money to give in return. Instead it was expected the
people of the nation would all pay their share to keep a socialized fire
department in place. Similarly, it was also decided that if a crime was
committed against someone the police would assist regardless of the
individual’s wealth, for how can there be justice in our nation if it only
exists for those who can afford it? So why is it still that in America if
someone falls ill we allow for it to bankrupt them? Just as various private sectors
have already been publicized for the greater benefit of our nation, it is now
time for health care to become universal.
To
many this is a radical idea, one that could only be conceivable in a communist
dystopia, but that is simply not the case. Many may be surprised to hear, but
steps towards universal healthcare have already been taken decades ago and
continue to be done. The incredibly effective Medicare and Medicaid programs
are in essence socialized healthcare. Roughly 50 million American Citizens
currently are enrolled in Medicare (KFF) and roughly 8.7 million are enrolled
in Medicaid (Medicaid), although it should be noted there is sizable overlap
between enrollees of the two programs. The vast majority of these people are
elderly, sick, disabled, and/or impoverished and would be unable to afford
health care without these programs. Although these programs are steps in the
right direction they are not enough. Even those who implemented many of
America’s current health care programs such as Lyndon B Johnson, Franklin
Roosevelt, and Barack Obama have shown support for the eventual adoption of
universal healthcare and it is with no surprise. The only surprising thing is
that the US is one of the only major countries, joined only by China and India,
to have not yet instituted universal healthcare.
When it comes
to economics many may disagree over which system is the superior one but in
terms of morality there is little room to dissent on the statement that
Universal Health Care is by far the most moral system. To tie the health of an
American citizen to his or her income is inherently immoral, to have the
wealthy few favored while the impoverished many scorned is an unjust system
that a government which is said to be by the people, for the people should have
no business in supporting. A common argument is that collecting taxes to pay
for a health care program is by nature immoral since enforced taxation is no
different from thievery. There is merit to this claim, but by its logic all
taxation by which the government operates on is inherently immoral and should
be ceased immediately, resulting in the complete elimination of the American
Government. Although this stance on universal health care is a valid one to take
it is not one that can be held without also favoring for an entire government
shutdown indefinitely, which is sure to do far more damage than benefit. Others
may argue that taxation itself is fine but taxation in order to support
entitlement programs for those deemed unworthy, or freeloaders, should not be
allowed. Once again if this logic is to be continued that would mean other
programs such as public schools, the fire department, and the police should all
be discontinued. If a 6 year old hasn’t contributed to society then why should
we have to pay taxes to send him to first grade?
Some
may argue that universal health care is inherently inferior to privatized
health care, without the competition of the free market doctors will provide
subpar treatments and raise prices. In theory this makes sense but in practice
it is proved wrong. Countries such as Sweden, Denmark, the UK, and many more
all have socialized there health care to a high degree and consistently score
at the top of every conceivable health care rating. On the contrary the US
consistently scores near or at the bottom of health care rankings for major countries.
How can this be? As Bill Frist said, “America has the best doctors, the best nurses, the
best hospitals, the best medical technology, [and] the best medical
breakthrough medicines in the world. There is absolutely no reason we should
not have in this country the best health care in the world.” It
defies all logic that even despite the US’ clear advantage in nearly all
medical resources that we do not have the best health care in the world. So
what is the disconnect that occurs between having the best resources yet some
of the worst results? It all comes down to our government’s allowance of
private companies to seek profit even at the expense of the American citizen. Currently
the cost of total health care per capita expenditure in the US is 9,146$, while
the cost of many better performing countries ranges from 3,500-5,500$ on
average (World Health Organization). Despite our lower health care quality and
lower health care enrollment rates we still expend far more money than any
other nation. So where does this excess money reside since it is obviously not
being committed to the actual provision of health care. Quite simply it goes to
company executives, advertisements, and various other unnecessary expenditures.
It may seem counterintuitive but allowing for the health care market to be
privatized does not drive down costs for the consumer but instead drives them
up. Private companies will first and foremost work to secure their own profits,
they will charge as much as possible to the consumer to accomplish this. If
every health care company decides to charge more than necessary to increase
profits for themselves there is little in place to stop them. This is exactly
what is happening now in our current system, leading to billions being wasted
every year. If not for the Affordable Care Act mandating that 80% of all money
held by health insurance companies be committed to the provision of health care
even more would be wasted. As is, health insurance companies straddle the 80%
line as closely as possible, often passing below it effectively through the use
of loopholes and inefficient bureaucracy networks. Even though some restraints
have been placed on insurance providers by the government, the same has not
been true for other health care industries such as the pharmaceuticals. In
pharmaceutical companies only an average of 17.9% (Statista) of all funds is
spent towards research and development of drugs, while the remainder goes towards
executive pay and self-promotion of the company. In essence this means less
than 1/5 of the entire pharmaceutical market goes towards the actual provision
of pharmaceutics. In a universal system practically all funds of pharmaceutical
industries go towards the provision of pharmaceutics since there is no need to
advertise a company when there is no competition nor is there a need to pay or
employ executives when they do not exist. This is what the majority of other
major countries have done and it has been proven to work.
Maybe
it is just coincidence that the implementation of Universal Healthcare has
worked so well in other countries. Perhaps doing the same in America would even
end up being more expensive. An analysis by Gerald Friedman, Economics
Professor at the University of Massachusetts, determined that implementing a
universal health care system would add 15 trillion dollars of expenditure to
the government over the course of 10 years, or about 1.5 trillion per year. This
is completely true, incorporating Universal Healthcare would raise government
expenditure by about 15 trillion over the course of ten years, but what many
forget to mention when citing such a statistic is that it will save over 5
trillion net dollars in the same amount of time, to put it in perspective this
is enough money to eliminate all government deficit for the next ten years if
it continues at the current rate. Even though more money is being spent by the
government in order to support a universal system, less money is being spent
overall. It is predicted that currently over the course of the next 10 years an
average of 20 trillion dollars will be spent in the public sector for programs
such as Medicaid and Medicare, while in the private sector another 20 trillion
will be spent. This results in a net of 40 trillion net for our current health
care system. Now looking back to the Universal system, a total of 15 trillion
will be added to the public sector but all private sector expenditures will be
eliminated, meaning the net will end up as 35 trillion, 5 trillion less than
the privatized system, all while insuring absolutely every American citizen in
comparison to the only 88.96% that are insured currently (United States Census
Bureau), which equates to roughly 45 million American residents currently being
completely uninsured or gravely underinsured (AMSA). There is no doubt that a
Universal system is more cost effective than our privatized system.
To
allow for the wealthiest government to have ever existed to not fulfill the
role of which democratic governments were created for, to seek to fulfill the
common needs shared by the majority of citizens, is a failure of democracy. To
allow for 5 trillion dollars to be wasted over the next 10 years to support a
corrupt system, one that is found wanting in even its insurance of the general
population, is a failure of economic policy. To allow for millions of families
to be lacking of the health care they so desperately need, but cannot obtain
because of their poverty, is a failure of morality. The decision to implement
Universal Healthcare is not one that requires hesitance.
Citations
Chua, Kao-Ping. "The Moral Case for
Universal Health Care". American
Medical Student Association. American ………..Medical Student Association. Web Mar. 2015.
“Health Expenditure Per
Capita”. Global Health Observatory.
World Health Organization. Web 12 May. 2015.
Smith, Jessica and Medalia, Carla.
“Health Insurance Coverage in the United States” United States Census Bureau. ………..United
States Census Bureau. Web Sep. 2015.
“Spending of US
Pharmaceutical Industry for Research and Development” Statista. Statista. Web. 2015.
“Total Number of Medicare
Beneficiaries”. The Henry J Kaiser Family
Foundation. KFF. Web. 2013.
“Seniors & Medicare and Medicaid Enrollees”. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid. Medicaid. Web. 2015.
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