Do you think that Americans will have a universal healthcare system in our lifetime?

Question

This is something that I am completely supportive of, but I have doubts as to whether it can happen in this country anytime soon. In class last night (a master's public administration course) we had a speaker who said that healthcare in this country is headed for a big change soon. I hope he's right, but I'm wary. Do you agree or disagree?

Thanks. :)

Answer 1

I myself favor a universal care system.

I don't think it will happen, EVerybody will bitcch about the cost and it wont happen even though we are paying a lot for health care as it is, monthly premiums co-pays.

i think they should set it up like social security is, like have 5% taken out of your paycheck and your employer pays 5%. ANd then have everybody pay like 100 bucks a month to have health insurance.

THe current system is failure, we are all forced to subsidize those that do not have insurance. And we pay higher rates becasue of it.

Answer 2

I think it may well happen. There are many politicians right now who see this as the answer to our broken healthcare system. Others see it as some sort of socialism, but I feel they are overstating that greatly. Sort of like Chicken Little waiting for the sky to fall. Is our Social Security system socialism? Our taxes go for that and have since its inception. Did people back then call it socialism? Do they now? Something has to change with our healthcare system, and soon. This may be the answer, but there are a lot of details to work out. I noticed one answerer said to look at Canada and the problem with it there. I agree with this - if there are problems in the other countries that have universal health care, then we should look at their problems with it to avoid those problems ourselves. It doesn't mean we should just forget the idea - perhaps we can examine other systems to avoid their pitfalls.

Answer 3

Someone said "ask a Canadian and see if they like it".

Well I am a Canadian and I wouldn't have it any other way. It is not perfect and some operations have a time delay but we are all covered the same. Notice that I said "WE".

Universal health care in Canada does not cover teeth or cosmetic surgury but everything else is covered. I don't have to sell the farm to pay for an operation nor will I go bankrupt.

I hope that the USA does adapt this system in which most of the rest of the world has already adapted.

Answer 4

I hope it will change, but not to universal healthcare. Anyone can get healthcare right now. My sister had an operation without insurance and the government paid for it with a grant because she was a student. My father in law gets free healthcare from the county government. The programs are out there. You just have to look for them. Universal healthcare will slow everything down. You would have to wait in line for months to be treated and your paycheck would go down. I have Canadian and Scottish relatives who don't like it.

Answer 5

I hope not.

There is a price for everything. Having the government pay for it will not lower this price.

The best answer is to remove regulation of insurance, tort reform in medical malpractice suits, and the elimination of the tax treatment of businesses providing healthcare.

Healthcare costs are so high now in large part because people with job-provided healthcare are so disconnected from their true healthcare costs.

Why stay in shape if someone else is paying? Why not go to the doctor for a runny nose? You get the point.

Answer 6

I disagree with you that it is a good thing. Universal health care would be a disaster and one more lost freedom. How can we be the "land of the free" if we are not free to control our own health, retirement, business, money, charity, etc. Social programs are just a fancy word for slavery.

Nevertheless, I think it will happen eventually. We have already given up almost every other freedom, we'll give up that one too.

Answer 7

We do not need and we should not have universal health insurance.
We have universal health care right now. Anyone who needs treatment can get it. The only issue is how the care is paid for.
Socialism in any form does not work. The failings of socialism should be taught as a party of world history.

Answer 8

Change to the system I think is inevitable. What that change is I dont know.

I think that government administration of a healthcare system is recipe for disaster. And medicare/medicaid is an all too real example of this.

Take a look at what leading experts in the field have to say such as Drs Benjamin Zycher, Robert Goldberg, David Gratzer and more at the Center for Medical Progress.
These guys' articles are regularly printed medical publications as well as appearing before congress and the like.

for instance...
Medicare and Medicaid are the nation's two largest entitlement programs. They are also facing multi-trillion dollar deficits in coming decades as expenditures dwarf tax revenues. While some have advocated that the U.S. adopt a Canadian-style "single-payer" health care system to reign in costs, the Manhattan Institute recognizes that price controls and rationing will only exacerbate the health care challenges facing our nation, not solve them. Reforming these programs means opening Medicare and Medicaid to private insurance markets and putting consumers, not bureaucrats, in control of their own health care spending through health savings accounts and targeted vouchers. Empowered consumers make rational, cost-effective choices without dampening the market incentives driving health care innovation.

and ...
The U.S. is the world's leader in biopharmaceutical innovation, mainly because the U.S. does not impose price controls on prescription drugs. However, the rise of the internet has given individual U.S. consumers access to drugs in price controlled countries, leading to a growing demand that policymakers legalize importation on a national level. This policy would undermine medical innovation, while sending pharmaceutical investment and innovation now conducted in the U.S. to our rapidly developing competitors in China and India. The CMP is devoted to cataloguing the benefits of market driven medical innovation, both in economic and human terms, and in shifting the debate on drug importation to a question of free trade. After all, since the entire world benefits from the premium U.S. consumers pay for drug research and development, U.S. trade negotiators should encourage rich nations to help bear the full costs of drug development.

and...
Third-party payment plans allow some consumers to use services without ever paying the full cost of health care utilization, while others pay for benefits they don't need. The result is a system where health care costs spiral out of control and consumer choice is limited to "one-size-fits-all" medicine. The CMP wants to change this system by making it a true market: putting consumers in charge of their own routine health care spending; reserving insurance for truly catastrophic injuries; and creating a national market for health insurance that encourages customized insurance plans and pricing competition.

Its goin to be no simple thing to have some kind of universal healthcare in the USA unless to some degree healthcare in the world changes.

Answer 9

Since several of the candidates running for election are proposing it, it has a pretty good chance of becoming reality. I'm not crazy about it, but not crazy about a lot fo the stuff my tax dollars go for.

Answer 10

Universal health care is good for everyone. For example, imagine that you ride in a subway next to someone who has tuberculosis because he couldn't afford to be cured? Suppose you become infected from him? Obviously, you don't want that to happen to you. So it is in YOUR interest to make sure that everyone is healthy.