Problem is the uninsured often
don't pay the full price. Why is that? Two reasons:-
1. The
Emergency Medical and Treatment Labor Act forbids the denial of care to indigent or uninsured patients who cannot pay in an emergency situation.
2. Shifting the costs on to those
can pay reduces the number who can pay and increases the number who can't - a vicious cycle.
The fundamental problem with healthcare is that people want more than they can afford, which is perfectly understandable. This is greatly exacerbated by medical advances that make treatments possible but expensive. There are two ways to deal with this:-
1. 'Free market' healthcare - those who can pay get it, those who can't don't. The problem with this is obvious. The rich can afford much better healthcare than the poor, and the health industry concentrates on them because that's where the money is. A billionaire will pay a billion to be kept alive. Health providers then have no incentive to offer cheaper medical care.
2. 'Universal' healthcare run by the government. But this is totally unacceptable becauss it's socialism, with all the bad stuff that imples:-
a) The governement is inherently less efficient than private enterprise. This is so obvous that we don't need to prove it.
b) Government is inherently corrupt - again no proof needed, this is just a fact.
c) Healthcare will be rationed. If you think breadlines in Russia were bad, just imagine camping outside a hospital for 2 years! Many people will suffer - and some will die - because the authorites decided they weren't urgent enough.
d) People will be refused care because they aren't 'worth it'. 90 years old and need multiple organ transplants or expensive cancer treatment? Sorry bud, you're not a productive member of society so...
e) The underserving will suck up resourses that you should get. You know - the obese, drug addicts, whores etc. Of course
your'e not overweight, don't eat unhealthy foods, and don't drink, smoke, or engage in risky behavior, right?
f) They will unfairly prioritize people who follow the government's bogus health advice.
g) You will be paying for poor people to get the same healthcare as you. How unfair!
For all these reasons and more, universal healthcare is the
worst possible option.
But there's another way. Keep things as they are now - just blame insurance campanies and shoot the occasional CEO. The public outrage will then... um... fix it so we can have all the affordable healthcare we want no matter how much it actually costs.
I hear that some countries have a fourth way - universal healthcare
and private healthcare with insurance for those who can afford it. Thus everyone gets basic care, while those who can afford it can either have the same
or more. The result is not the greatest healthcare for most, but
affordable care for most. Unforunately this only works in countries whose governments have been infiltrated by soicalists. It couldn't possibly happen in the US.