Why Universal Health Care Is A Failure

Obama’s purposed plan for universal health care is flawed and will cause more damage than good.

If we won't even be able to pay for medicare when the baby boomers all retire, how does Obama plan to pay for a universal health care system?


What will happen to all the private health insurance companies when employers choose to purchase the cheaper government health care system? How many jobs will be lost?


Obama promises that the proposed health care plan won't add to the deficit and will be paid for upfront. Where exactly are the funds coming from? If taxes are increased, how does that help Americans in their financial struggles? Is the difference made up by requiring everyone in a higher tax bracket to pay the difference?


There are problems in today’s health care system. However, there is a natural solution to the problem many Americans are facing. If the cost of health insurance continues to rise, more and more Americans will drop out and no longer be covered. If enough people drop out, the cost of health insurance will decrease. It's a fact.

Despite that, Democrats are calling for government intervention, which furthers problems.


"In order to pay for expanded coverage of healthcare for everyone, the government will have to impose higher taxes. One proposal is a mandatory tax on employers who don't offer credible healthcare benefits. Before we proceed, it is important to point out that individuals pay taxes, not "employers". Behind every company are individual owners or shareholders, and WE (you and me) will pay any tax that is imposed. Higher taxes on "employers" result in less money available for wages, employee benefit plans, and other expenditures. Those other expenditures include less money to be spent with a company's vendors, building and maintenance expenses, research and development, capital equipment and improvements, legal and accounting services, marketing budgets, community outreach programs, charitable contributions, etc. The trickle down effect of higher taxes simply means that less money will be available for individuals."


A universal health care system might NOT increase the national debt; however, it will increase the debt of your friends, family and neighbors. Higher taxes will not help to stimulate the economy. Instead, it will result in fewer purchases, less saving and less jobs. The promise of a recovering economy seems smaller and smaller.


"Now imagine a healthcare company trying to sell their product or service in an environment where the government is in control. What if the government won't pay the market price for a medical device, prescription drug, imaging system, etc.? The end result will be fewer profits for companies competing in the healthcare field and less incentive to create the next generation of products. Less profits trickles quickly down to the individuals (you and me) in the form of less opportunity, lower wages, and fewer jobs."


Less opportunity translates into a halt of technological advances. Americans are looking for new treatments, new cures and better ways to diagnose illnesses, yet it will be increasingly difficult to find the funds for such advances to take place.


Medicare, a much smaller program, covers 44 million Americans, but the program is plagued with problems.


“Medicare's Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund is expected to pay out more in hospital benefits and other expenditures this year than it receives in taxes and other dedicated revenues. In addition, the Medicare Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund that pays for physician services and the prescription drug benefit will continue to require general revenue financing and charges on beneficiaries that will grow substantially faster than the economy and beneficiary incomes over time.”


The needs of the program are outgrowing the funding that is available. What will happen will the needs of the universal health are system undoubtedly outgrow the funding? Physician salaries will drop. Prescription medication cost will go down. Taxes will increase.


When physician salaries decrease, it will decrease the amount of new doctors. It takes twenty years of schooling, over a hundred thousand dollars as well as on the job training which could last from months to years to become a doctor. When the cost of prescription medication decreases, their will be less incentive for researchers to develop new drugs. When taxes increase the economy is stifled. Medicare has shown us that we are not able to afford government health care right now, let alone the future. National health care spending is expected to total 2.5 trillion dollars for 2009 alone. By 2018, it’s predicted to double, amounting to a total of 4.4 trillion dollars.


The only new health care plan the government should be developing is a plan like medicare, available to families only below the poverty line. While welfare is in some cases abused, many working families do need assistance.

As for a plan for all Americans, now is not the time, if there ever will be. Private health insurance companies are an important part of the American economy. To lose them could be disastrous.

http://blogs.wisbusiness.com/bizopinion/2009/09/economics-of-nationalized-health-care.html
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/
http://www.freedomworks.org/publications/medicares-two-fundamental-problems
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/05/29/obama_calls_for_universal_health_care_coverage_paid_for_by_government_business_consumers/
http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml
http://www.kff.org/medicare/h08_7821.cfm