Universal Medical Care Pros and Cons

by Alston Ballkcom

Posted on Tuesday 29th of September 2009

Every update on universal medical care insurance I hear on the the radio has a different point of view. According to some so called experts the countries who use socialized medicine have lower standards of living and are forced to ration medical care to older patients. According to others they see the advantage or bonus of socialized medicine and all its good points and see none of the negative aspects of universal health care.

I'm in favor of a universal health care system. However, we can be sure there are more ways to create a health care system that will be no better than what we have than there are to create a good system. We have to do this right or we are going to be stuck with the negative aspects of National Health Care without all of the positives.

Few people believe that National healthcare will not create higher taxes. However, we are paying for our broken system already. If certain of those costs go away, we may wind up with more money in our pockets.

Now, an injured man who needs emergency health care will almost without exception be able to get treatment whether or not he or she has any ability to pay for the provided doctoring. You and I pay for the costs of the medical care. The hospital has to raise the prices. It gets the money from its paying patients to make up for the ones that don't pay. At the same time it ruins the credit of the patient who can't write a check for the cost of the services.

Another issue that worries many is the drain on our economy that may be caused by those who lose their ambition because they get qualify for free health care. I suppose that only time will tell, but I think that if we have more healthy people more people will be available to work. There are probably more ambitious people who are unable to work because of poor medical care than there are people who would become lazy when better health care is available to them.

The positives of socialized medicine include the lessening of employment discrimination for the older workers. If the burden of the cost if insurance were shifted to the government, older and sicker people may be more employable. A small business owner who interviews an older or less healthy applicant, today may focus on how that applicant would raise their group medical insurance premiums and not on the skills and knowledge that person might bring to the job.

More seasoned professional will in many cases do a better job than less experienced workers. This can increase the efficiency of a business and mean that the employer and our country moves forward faster than it would otherwise.

Potential entrepreneurs will be able to start their own business without leaving their healthcare insurance behind. The fear of losing medical benefits has kept many people shackled to jobs that they have long ago out grown. Socialized medicine will perhaps allow certain great man or woman to invent the next big thing, whatever that may be.

Today a parent may be unable to afford both the food she or he needs to feed their family and the healthcare that they need. This can mean that this parent dies early leaving their babies behind. A medical care system with good preventative care that is available to all can keep these parents around to rear their children and better prepare them to for life.

I think that what we all want is a stronger economy and a better country. Universal medical care improves our economy by making older, more productive people more productive. It can also extend the time that some of our youth gets to spend with their parents and have a major impact on our future as a country.