There are many arguments advanced by the opponents of universal coverage, from the sublime to the ridiculous, the practical to the ideological, the informed to the ignorant. I’ve attempted to identify ten of the most common and acknowledge there is overlap amongst these objections.
That’s fine, as the purpose of this series is to confront the issue where it has the most traction – in the minds of the layperson.
After some considerable research, here is this year’s top ten list of reasons universal coverage is bad.
1. Universal coverage does not mean universal care, as it will lead to rationing of care, either overt or via extended waits for care.
2. Universal coverage would result in the government running the health care system making it worse than it is today – because the government can’t do anything right
3. Competition is what made this country great, and universal coverage is anti-competitive as the government is involved.
4. It’s unfair to ask the young and healthy to pay for the health care costs of the older and sicker.
5. Universal coverage will lead to a decrease in innovation.
6. Solutions such as ‘health status insurance’ can provide long-term, secure health insurance, obviating the need for universal coverage.
7. Even though every other industrialized country has some form of universal coverage, many are looking to add market mechanisms to their plans. This shows universal coverage doesn’t work.
8. The problems with the US health care system are not caused by the private market, but by over-regulation and over-involvement of the government in the current market.
9. It’s unaffordable.
10. Health care is not a right; if we are guaranteeing health care why not guarantee food, clothing, housing…
Apr
9
A post clearly written by someone who is not (yet) a victim of the US healthcare system. Let’s take them one at a time:
1 – You think there’s not rationing now? Entrepreneurs and small business owners must ration their healthcare all the time.
2 – No-one could run the US healthcare worse than it runs at the moment. Every government run program in the world spends less on admin than the US does, for instance.
3 – Nothing about universal coverage is anti-competitive. Universal coverage does not imply single delivery and, even if it did, there is a global market for products.
4 – why? That’s like saying that car insurance is bad because drivers who don’t crash pay for drivers who do…
5 – you are repeating yourself and saying it twice does not make it any more true.
6 – no idea what you mean here.
7 – no it doesn’t. If they were REPLACING one with the other it would but they are not.
8 – Ha! Tell that to someone who has been turned down for individual (private) insurance because they have acne or hemorrhoids. Private insurance (especially employer-based insurance) is inefficient and wasteful. Just do the math – all that money being spent on paperwork….
9 – the current system is going to kill the small business entrepreneur as more and more folks stick with big companies instead of following their passion for fear of losing their healthcare. If you think a US economy that only has large companies is affordable then you don’t understand innovation as much as you think you do
10 – written by someone secure in his own healthcare. If a government cannot provide basic services for its citizens, what good is it?
If I sound cranky, I am. As a small business owner denied healthcare coverage by these wonderful private insurers (for petty reasons not unlike those listed in my comment) I see nothing good in the current system.
9 – the current system is going to kill the small business entrepreneur as more and more folks stick with big companies instead of following their passion for fear of losing their healthcare. If you think a US economy that only has large companies is affordable then you don’t understand innovation as much as you think you do
I don’t work in every state but those that I do all have guarantee issue pools for small employers under 50. Replacing the financial burden of insurance with taxes doesn’t get the entrepreneur any further. In fact with insurance you have options and some ability to control your cost and sitution, come tax time you have no say.
1. The person paying the bill deserves the right to ration. Some politician living off my tax dollar has no right to tell me what I can and can not buy with my money.
2. What US system do you refer to? THere is no such thing as the US system. We have a handful of terrible and expensive government systems then thousands of other systems all performing various degrees of better.
Where in the constituion does it allow for a certain generation to live off the labor of future generations? The first people to receive SS didn’t earn the benefit, same as those on Medicare, you can’t keep giving free rides to everyone, someone needs to pay the bill eventually.
7. this is ridicolous, how can you look at a bankrupt system that hasn’t “officially” filed BK and say it isn’t broke. Universal coverage will be “replaced” decades after it has failed, who in their right mind would model reform after something we know doesn’twork. That makes all the since as looking back at HMOs in 1975 when Ted Kennedy was gushhing all over them and say look how great HMOs are we should implement them….ignoring all the damage they did 10-20 years later.
“The person paying the bill deserves the right to ration.”
So true.