Universal health care will hurt the poor and the middle class while doing little to change the care afforded to the elite. High levels of health care at all levels are not realistically sustainable by the government. It’s honorable to strive to help the poor but providing mediocre treatment for all will only cause more suffering. Focused aide doesn’t feel as good but it is more practical. Our honor is not worth hurting others.
Given a number of years on a universal system the distribution of payments will leave the average citizen paying more as opposed to less towards health care. People who do not need as much care will pay for those that do through increased taxes. The finances of such a large program are complex and difficult to manage. Government spending and financial allotment operates in a different fashion from the private sector. These differences lead to unequal and inadequate allotments of the publics money. It will take more money to accomplish the same, or lesser, goals already being achieved through the private sector.
Not only will the distribution of finances leave much to be desired, but the distribution of talent will as well. The level of general health care will decrease as the more prominent doctors will stay in the private arena. There aren’t enough doctors as it is, but creating a split between the general doctors and the private doctors will increase the waiting lines, decrease the quality of personal care, and create an even more noticeable split between the care of the general populace versus the care of the elite.
Emergency room triage will become a national epidemic. Instead of deciding who needs the most aid in the coming hours it will be who needs the most aid in the long run. Smaller problems will lead to larger problems and the general well being of the country will drop substantially. Triage is not the answer. It is meant to minimize the losses. In an emergency it is necessary to leave those that are beyond care and focus on those that have a chance. Where then is the aid given to the dieing? It is common for proponents of a universal system to point to the lack of care allowed to people who are chronically ill and do not have the money to afford the proper treatments. It is seldom recognized that the care and finances given have to balance out somewhere. Difficult decisions will have to be made leading to an increase in the suffering of either those in chronic circumstances or everyone else.
A universal health care system will increase the overall pain and suffering in our nation. It will allow the rich to receive the same care they are afforded now while diluting the care provided to the lower classes. It will force the nation into uncomfortable decisions about the distribution of care and will lower the overall quality of life throughout the country. Our current system is flawed, as are all systems including universal health care. Rather than shifting to a new system and a new set of flaws, some of which we can predict and others we will stumble upon, we would do well to focus on fixing the flaws of our current system. We should face the demons that we know, the demons before us, rather than risking those we don’t.