The calls for Medicare-for-All are getting louder from some politicians. What they don’t seem to understand, or perhaps they just don’t care, is that this kind of healthcare system is actually a really bad idea.
The Horrors of Medicare-for-All
Medicare-for-All supporters believe the only way to solve our healthcare woes is to force everyone into government-run healthcare whether they want it or not.
Essentially, a system like this will completely eliminate your ability to choose the type of healthcare you and your family want. Those who support it have admitted that they would abolish the private insurance industry. The result means that your freedom of choice is going to be ripped away from you.
Furthermore, abolishing the private insurance industry means that half a million Americans would suddenly be out of work. Sure, the government will need some of them to keep Medicare-for-All running, but they almost certainly will not need 500,000 new employees. The American economy just recovered from the greatest recession since the Great Depression, so eliminating an entire industry is a terrible idea.
The private insurance industry doesn’t just employ Americans. Its stocks are a large part of the mutual funds that millions of Americans’ retirement savings are made of. The industry is also responsible for roughly a trillion dollars in revenue a year.
Speaking of money, Medicare-for-All is not just going to take away your ability to choose healthcare; it’s going to take your money too. The program would cost the federal government upwards of $32 trillion over the course of a decade.
Quality of Care
What about the quality of care? It’s not great.
Countries that have socialized medicine also have long wait times to see specialists. In the US, 70% of Americans will have seen a specialist within four weeks of receiving a referral. In Canada, only 40% of patients see their specialist within a month.
Specialists include cardiologists, pulmonologists, gastroenterologists, oncologists and many others. Basically, the doctors who are meant to save lives.
Those wait times lead to emergency rooms filled with people who need care but can’t get into the doctor. Do you think a trip to the ER is bad now? Medicare-for-All will make that so much worse.
Finally, if there is one thing that America is known for, it’s innovation in the field of medicine. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma called socialized medicine “the greatest threat to innovation in healthcare.”
Essentially, Medicare-for-All would harm this country to such a degree it’s hard to imagine it fully. If we value our freedoms and our health, it can never be allowed to take hold in America.
Copyright 2019, TargetLiberty.org
