Universal Healthcare and Cost/Benefit Analysis

Should healthcare be universal? I personally don’t have the right answer but only my opinion. The best thing I can do is offer some pros and cons about health care and then let the reader decide. By the end of this, I hope to give you the reader a good opinion and I will share what I think as well.

The Pros

“The founding documents of the United States provide support for a right to health care.”

“Instituting a right to health care could lower the cost of health care in the United States.”

“A right to health care could save lives.”

“The right to health care is an internationally recognized human right.”

“A right to health care could make medical services affordable for everyone.”

The Cons

“A right to health care could increase the US debt and deficit.”

“A right to health care could increase the wait time for medical services.”

“Implementing a right to health care could lead the United States towards socialism.”

“Providing a right to health care could raise taxes.”

“Providing a right to health care could worsen a doctor shortage.”

Okay, so all of these provide some insight into healthcare being universal. If you believe any of the pros and cons of the aforementioned statements then I believe there is enough information to generate an opinion. If you want to find out more detail about these pros and cons and even the research to back the statements, please visit https://healthcare.procon.org/.

My feeling on the cost to benefit of healthcare would directly affect my opinion on whether healthcare should be universal, so I will dive into the former. I wonder if by lowering costs of healthcare would you then lower the quality of care or healthcare workers as an outcome? There’s definitely some food for thought when talking about the cost vs. benefit argument. As someone who considers themselves healthy and informed in wellness, I ask are people who are not taking care of themselves consistently causing the cost of health care to go up? According to the CDC, “ Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors are responsible for most chronic diseases. These diseases cause approximately 70 percent of all deaths and up to 75% of all healthcare costs. Lack of physical activity, poor diets, and tobacco use is directly responsible for 70-90% of chronic diseases. My response to that would be if people took responsibility for their health would we even be questioning whether there should be universal healthcare in the first place?

There’s also some issue with the transparency of costs between patients, insurers, and physicians. Costs of procedures, drugs, treatment, and anything else you may need in healthcare are usually decided by the physician, drug company, and insurance. This lack of transparency for the patient leads to price increases. This is so because the patient has no information to compare prices so they just accept what the doctor tells them. I believe if this system were improved upon and there was more transparency for the patient then a possible outcome could be the lower general cost of healthcare, effectively making universal healthcare less important.

Are many of the providers out there over-charging you? Are you doing treatments that are unnecessary or at least overkill for what you might be going through? This would be another example of doctor-patient-insurance transparency. America apparently does twice as much imaging as other industrialized nations around the world. Imaging like MRIs or x-rays is incredibly expensive in the US. Sadly many physicians do this because they are covering potential expenses that might incur from being sued! This shows a lack of transparency from the provider and responsibility on the patient’s part. I won’t say I have a solution to this as that is another paper, but what I will say, is that that has to count for something!

In conclusion, my opinion is that at this time healthcare should NOT be universal. From the information I have gathered it seems like a process that could lead to a socialist type of society. The last thing that we need is more government and taxes. While there are many valid points I have found in being a universal healthcare system, I have seen more facts to push me toward the latter. I don’t know if I am right and I am happy to be schooled on the topic more.

As far as the cost-benefit of healthcare I believe that it is too expensive and there is too much politics involved without enough transparency. I also believe that the cost could be lower if people were more conscious of their personal wellness and didn’t take as many drugs to help themselves.

Authors note I am currently going to school to become a nurse so I have a soft spot for healthcare providers. If you know of any doctors that may need help with their medical-related phone calls, please consider using https://24x7doctorsansweringservice.com/. They are sponsoring this potential scholarship and their service for providers is invaluable.

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Thanks,

Max