Universal Healthcare: A real life example in U.K.
For all of the people who still think that government healthcare is a good thing, I present you with another glaring example of it’s end:
A glowing Amy Winehouse bounced back from her recent health problems to sing at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday concert in Hyde Park last night… Winehouse left a private London hospital on Monday after being diagnosed with early signs of emphysema following a fainting incident last week.
What has happened in the U.K. mirrors that wherever the failed idea of universal, government controlled healthcare has been implemented: Private care for the wealthy only.
When “free” healthcare becomes available, demand for services skyrocket. Government, being notoriously incompetent in managing anything, causes the system to bog down. Quality is reduced because the existing infrastructure cannot support the increased demand. Also, the amount of money available is insufficient to cover the expenses of the system, resulting in (1) higher taxes, (2) restrictions and rationing of the care that is available, (3) medical professionals leaving the “system” because of their new inability to determine their own earnings, and (4) the establishment of private sector solutions to the problem that government has created.
Ironically, the result of government healthcare is the exacerbation of the same “problem” the liberals and the ignorant seek to address: Quality healthcare is available only to the wealthy. As was the condition before government took over healthcare, private healthcare is not affordable (as it is now unaffordable in the US). Those in the middle and lower tiers of income can neither pay the cash price, nor can they afford to purchase insurance. The situation is worse since the working class is now burdened with the excessive taxation required to support the government system, so now even FEWER people are able to afford healthcare. Only the “well to do” are able to purchase private health insurance, and the ultra-wealthy opt-out entirely by paying cash. So, in the end, it’s not just the poor who have no healthcare: it’s the middle class too.
In conclusion, I summarize the conditions that caused American healthcare to become unaffordable to so many. The first cause of increased costs in the (current) American healthcare system was health insurance. As more people received health insurance as a company benefit, healthcare providers naturally became aware that more services could be given (and at higher prices) because a guranteed source of payment now existed. These higher prices compelled even more people to acquire health insurance, thus sending healthcare costs into an upward spiral.
Mandatory coverage of indigents and illegal aliens at healthcare facilities has placed added costs on healthcare. Also the cost of those who are uninsured and just cannot pay. These costs are added on to the costs that are billed to paying customers. Health insurance providers, in effort to remain viable, must charge more for premiums and cover less in services. This has resulted in a steady decline in the number of people able to afford health insurance and a steady increase in the “insured’s” unpaid portions of healthcare bills. As the cost of health insurance skyrocketed (For example, my health insurance cost has increased 1300% over the past 10 years), we now have “insured” Americans who cannot afford healthcare. Thus, “free” healthcare has tremendous appeal to the masses who fail to consider the end result.
The solution for the healthcare “problem” begins with one fundamental realization: healthcare is not a right. Healthcare is not guaranteed to the people of America by The Constitution of the United States of America. Sure, healthcare is a need, but it is not a right. The solution also requires a monumental action by the Federal Government: the Federal Government must be completely extricated from the healthcare business. Even as our healthcare system is today, the burden of the government financed and government mandated healthcare cannot be supported. By removing a HUGE portion of the demand through one single action, downward pressure on prices would be immediate. With the government OUT of healthcare, more competition would become present in the health provider and health insurance industries. Less room for greed and fraud would mean lower prices for all.
