Medicare for all, single-payer health care, public option. No matter what it’s called, government-run health care would be a disaster for our country.
What Is Government-Run Healthcare?
While proposals from politicians can differ slightly, government-run healthcare pretty much always means that the government controls the healthcare system and Americans no longer have an option as to who they get their coverage from. Private health insurance providers will become illegal and public health programs will become part of the same insurance program everyone else is forced to use.
How Is It Paid For?
Nothing in life is free, and although some people like to act like universal healthcare wouldn’t cost a thing, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Any kind of government-run plan would be paid for the same way: taxes. The only thing that changes is where those taxes come from.
Some supporters of “free” healthcare say that they will tax the rich. Is it really fair for 10% of the population to pay for the other 90%? Not really.
In reality, what will probably happen is that taxes will go up for businesses and individuals. For some people, the extra taxes will be less than what they currently pay for health insurance, but for others, it could be significantly higher.
Big businesses won’t be happy about the increase, but it probably won’t affect their bottom line very much. Small businesses are another story.
There are an estimated 30.2 million small businesses in the US. While most of those businesses would probably love to provide healthcare to their employees (after all, healthy employees are happy employees), many of them can’t. Instead, they pay their employees a little bit more so they can then purchase whatever insurance works best for them and their families.
With government-run healthcare, this isn’t an option for anyone involved. Businesses will close and people will lose their jobs. Healthcare is great, but so is being able to afford your home.
Lack of Choice
The scariest thing about government-run healthcare is the lack of choice. Health boards would decide who can be seen where and what kind of procedures will be covered.
Right now, if you need to get in and see a doctor and yours isn’t available you have the option of calling any other doctor that is accepting new patients and making an appointment with them, or heading to an urgent care center in some cases. Although wait times can be annoying, they usually aren’t more than a few weeks away. With government-run healthcare, that all changes.
In Canada, which has socialized medicine, there are lengthy wait times for even the most basic procedures. In 2017, there were more than a million people waiting up to a year for knee, hip and shoulder surgeries. In England, it isn’t uncommon for “non-urgent” surgeries to be delayed or canceled multiple times. Why do we think the same thing wouldn’t happen here? Do we really want to trust health boards to determine what kind of care we are worthy of receiving?
If you don’t like your job, you always have the option of quitting and finding something new. When your grocery store raises their prices you can drive the extra mile and shop at a different one. That annoying waiter at the restaurant down the street who never gets your order right? You can choose to never go there again.
One of the greatest things about American is our freedom, including the freedom to choose. Government-run healthcare takes away the freedom to choose how our health is handled, and that’s something we should never willingly give away.
Copyright 2019, TargetLiberty.com
