Thursday, August 20, 2009

Health Care for All

The thought of everybody in the USA being covered for HealthCare just for being an American...well it is a really nice thought. What a great idea...as we get old we won't have to worry about our health care. When our disabled need it they will have it. When our children need it, even in the poorest areas...they will have it. What a great country we will be when we can cover our own.

I can understand that side. It tugs at your heartstrings. It makes you think yes, why not?... But when I think about it more it makes less sense to me. Here are just a few of the reasons.

#1 - How is our country going to be able to sustain the cost of this Obama's Healthcare program?
Since Obama has taken office our deficit has quadruplied. The amount of dept our tax payers are paying is astounding. Currently we could calculate more than a %50 tax that the average American pays. This is including federal income, state income, local income taxes, property, and sales tax. This doesn't include medicare, social security, corporate, or excise taxes. Obama's Health Care plan will cost over the next 10 years an extra 634 Billion dollars. That is $634,000,000,000.00, and that is a very conservative estimate of what it will really cost. Experts are estimate 1.5 trillion as a more of a realistic number. That would be an extra $5000 per man, woman and child. This would be on top of the taxes we already pay. This cost would be picked up by the middle and upper class.

#2 - Is Obama Care going to make our health care better?


There are many other nations that have government health care. This includes Canada and many other European nations. How do these nations compare to the US Health Care. I have seen the World Health Organization's ranking of 190 nations with US as #37. So with this ranking the US with the most expensive health care in the world is ranked at #37 behind many nations that have socialized medicine. I do think socialized medicine could have an advantage in many cases. It is the cases that it can't that I would like to discuss

There is a reason that so many wealthy members of countries that offer socialized medicine come to the US for major health care needs. That reason is we have the best in the world. No place else in the world offers the level of technology and innovation that we offer. We are leading the world in new discoveries, research, and cures. If you need a transplant or cancer therapy this is were you want to be. If you have a broken leg, well that is something that anybody anywhere in the world can take care of for you.

Overall I think it will make our health care quality worse by taking away some of the competitiveness that is now active in our current free market. If doctors salaries go down, then we will not have as good of doctors. If prices are set for certain procedures, then there will be no reason for health care providers to try and improve the patient experience for those procedures. It will be who can do it the cheapest. Patient care will be effected.

#3 - What people don't want to hear the most...If you want to be healthy, then take care of yourself...

Let me start this by saying I know that there are health conditions that are not caused by poor habits. I know that, but the fact is that most are. If you want to be healthy then don't smoke, eat right, don't abuse alcohol and/or drugs, and exercise. Here is a universal health care solution for all of the americans that wont cost us more,..it will actually cost us less. It will create longer more productive and satifactory lives. The only problem with this solution is it puts the responsibility back on you as the individual for your own healthcare, not on the government. You don't have anybody to blame but, yourself.

Conclusion:

These are just a few of the things I have thought about with this whole health care debate. I would not call myself an expert on this subject. My opinion can definitely be persuaded with a well thought out arguement. If anybody has any then let me know.

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