Healthcare Post #1

     I went into my research about health care thinking that it should be available to everyone in our country because no one deserves to left without care in their time of need. There are over 45 million uninsured Americans and the cost of health care is unaffordable to most businesses and individuals. It's a no brainer to establish a universal system where everyone is required to buy health insurance, right? Wrong. After conducting some research I actually found that a system like this would do more harm than good. It would cause a decrease in the quality of care, hidden costs and opportunity costs, and would just flat out not work in the United States.
    First off, different organizations provide care and it is illegal to refuse emergency medical service because of a lack of insurance so no one will ever go untreated. Due to the increase in people being treated, there will be long waits for treatment, causing unrest. Government-mandated procedures will likely reduce doctor flexibility and lead to poor patient care. Doctors will be less likely to work around your schedule so they could work around the governments. With the abundance of patients, doctors are likely not to give the full amount of effort to each individual patient that they need. That could lead to more patients suing the doctors. Malpractice lawsuit costs, which are already sky-high, could further explode since universal care may expose the government to legal liability, and the possibility to sue someone with deep pockets usually invites more lawsuits That alone could bury the system and cause chaos in hospitals.

     Free health care would turn out to be anything but. "Free" health care isn't really free since we must pay for it with taxes; expenses for health care would have to be paid for with higher taxes or spending cuts in other areas such as defense, education, etc. The hospitals are going to have to start paying more because in an effort to cut costs, price and salary controls on drugs, medical equipment, and medical services are likely to be put in place, meaning there is less incentive to pursue medical-related research, development, and investment, nor pursue medical careers in general. This system could end the dreams of young doctors and nurses everywhere. But hospitals aren't the only ones who would be paying. If all the unhealthy people are getting this insurance, who do you think is paying for all of it? That would be us. Healthy people who take care of themselves will have to pay for the burden of those who smoke, are obese, etc. A universal system would lead to corruption, competition, and cutting corners making it more of a burden to the American people then we think.
        Health care is just something that would not work well if run by the federal government. There isn't a single government agency or division that runs efficiently, so what makes me think that something as immense and important as health care could? You have to think of everything else that would affected first. A long, painful transition will have to take place involving lost insurance industry jobs, business closures, and new patient record creation. Talking about patient records, a universal health care program would end patient confidentiality since centralized health information will likely be maintained by the government. There would be too many restrictions and problems that would arise.Worst of all, any government benefit eventually is taken as a "right" by the public, meaning that it's politically near impossible to remove or curtail it later on when costs get out of control. This means that once this universal health care program is in place, there is no turning back. To me, the risk outweighs the reward.