Hailey Antczak
In 2016, the Center for Disease Control reported that the average American spends $9,700 on health care annually. In the United Kingdom, among multiple other countries, that number comes out to zero. Of 195 countries in the world, 152 of them offer free or universal healthcare to its citizens, and of 33 developed countries, the United States is the only one that doesn’t offer universal healthcare for its citizens, as reported by the New York Department of Health.
In essence, universal healthcare is a healthcare system that provides quality healthcare to everyone, paid for by the government and the people. The United States currently has systems in place that do provide healthcare for the underserved, such as Medicare or Medicaid, as well as the Affordable Care Act, or more commonly known as Obamacare, yet it still comes at a cost. The United States healthcare system has been flawed for decades, but even more recently select lawmakers and various citizens have been advocating for universal healthcare, but the question is, how great of a toll would that take on our economy?
There are multiple different ways that healthcare can be paid for, including government funded, paid for by taxes, or a combination of different ways. The current healthcare system that the United Kingdom has, for example, is a single payer healthcare system in which the government pays for it all. All appointments, treatments, medications, etc. are paid for by the government, albeit the citizens are still taxed. While British patients are able to receive luxurious care free of cost, uninsured Americans, on the other hand. are often left with massive medical bills looming over their heads. Just a mere ambulance ride can cost upwards of two or three thousand dollars if the patient isn’t insured.
The likelihood of the United States achieving universal health care can be characterized as slim to none. Reports from Forbes indicate the Senator Bernie Sanders’ single payer healthcare plan would add up to a staggering $32 trillion over a ten year span, which would only contribute to the massive deficit our country is already experiencing. Not to mention, the United States is already struggling to provide “Medicare for some,” as we spend nearly $700 billion on healthcare annually as it is, so unfortunately a status of “Medicare for all” is practically out of reach.
Sanders has long pushed for the United States to adapt a system similar to those of both Canada and the United States, in which patients would be provided with comprehensive coverage of doctors visits, medications, among other necessary treatments. Yet the costs would be astronomical as taxes would increase, and the government would have to allocate nearly $42 million annually if we were to use Sanders’ plan. While universal healthcare would definitely be a beneficial thing, the economic factors may possibly outweigh the ideologies of a perfect healthcare system. The United States has had a flawed system for years that only extreme funds and dedication from those who care about creating a better system would be able to help mend.
Works Cited
Amadeo, Kimberly. “Why America Is the Only Rich Country Without Universal Health Care.” The Balance, www.thebalance.com/universal-health-care-4156211.
Pipes, Sally. “Choking On The Cost Of 'Medicare For All'.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 6 Feb. 2019, www.forbes.com/sites/sallypipes/2018/07/09/choking-on-the-cost-of-medicare-for-all/#351ba21356f3.
Sen, Amartya, et al. “Harvard Public Health Review: A Student Publication.” Universal Health Care: The Affordable Dream | Harvard Public Health Review: A Student Publication, harvardpublichealthreview.org/universal-health-care-the-affordable-dream/.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is not giving up on his desire to extend Medicare to all Americans. He is set to unveil legislation on Wednesday that would likely jettison private health insurance, and Create A Government-Run Program. “Bernie Sanders' Last 'Medicare for All' Plan Cost Nearly $1.4 Trillion.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, money.cnn.com/2017/09/12/news/economy/sanders-medicare-for-all/index.html.
“What Is Universal Coverage?” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 8 Mar. 2019, www.who.int/health_financing/universal_coverage_definition/en/.
“Which Countries Offer Free or Universal Health Care.” International Travel Insurance Group, www.internationalinsurance.com/health/countries-free-healthcare.php.
I agree that the cost for ambulance rides is outrageous. It should be lowered greatly as if a patient is having a life threatening issue, they shouldn't need to have an additional stress on them financially. It cause a huge issue especially for patients that have multiple health diseases. In the Biomedical Innovations class that I'm in as an entire class we've discussed that it's important for something like this to be available to people that need it. One thing that I don't think should change is how our healthcare system is. The reason why is because how much higher everyone's taxes would become. If some people are actually going to get free health care they might be using this a lot more for their own advantage. This means it would be longer wait times to get into a doctor, but people that actually don't have anything wrong with them is showing up to the doctors with nothing wrong. This is not only a waste of the doctors times, but patients that actually need treatment because they have to wait longer.
ReplyDeleteAlthough healthcare is not free in the U.S., there are many jobs that come with insurance which typically includes health care. Even though some may worry about the people who work part time, there are jobs that are part time and have insurance. Yes, free health care would be very beneficial to the citizens, but what about the peoples tax money? I know Bernie pushes to use the money to pay for health care, but it wouldn’t necessarily be fair to the people who already have health care paid by their job to “pay” for other people’s health care. I am not saying that it would be a free-rider situation, but it wouldn’t be a public, communal good.
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ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing about this is how you wrote that even though the proposed healthcare system would provide the necessary healthcare to everyone, the costs would be insanely high and would add on to our countries already massive deficit. While this would not work, for obvious reasons, our healthcare system as of right now isn’t the best, and if anything, extremely unfair.
This raises the question, what can we do about it? I feel the best proposal would be to find some sort of middle ground. It would be wrong to assume that this would be something that could be figured out quickly, but with enough time and effort something worthwhile could potentially come out of this.
Even something small would bring about great change. Maybe not everything has to be covered, but little things like check-up with your doctor and even somethings out of your control like ambulance rides should not put a huge dent in your wallet. There should be some sort of bar set on which things are covered, and then when they cross the line into what the government shouldn’t have to pay.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post really opened up my eyes on the fact that it said Americans spend almost 10,000 dollars annually on health care. To me that seemed extremely high. You did a really good job explaining how a universal healthcare system would impact the economy. Me personally I think our healthcare program is good right now. Because if we change it everyone will not be satisfied. Even if that means making healthcare free and universal in the United states.
It is an interesting fact that the United States is the only developed country that does not offer free healthcare. I think it would be beneficial for the United States to offer free health care. Recently, I went on a ride along for the Waukesha Fire Department. There was a scenario where we were helping a guy who got attacked and he denied the opportunity to take an ambulance to the hospital because he COULD NOT AFFORD IT. People should not have to worry about whether or not they can afford health care, when they could possibly be in a life or death situation. Many Americans would be opposed to paying taxes for universal health care because it is more expensive, but with taking out the current price you pay and adding the relief of not worrying about it, for most people it would be a fair trade. Not only would you be helping yourself to "free" healthcare, you would also be helping other people who aren't as well off as you.
ReplyDeleteIt is weird to think of having free health insurance and having it all paid for. But as you said there are too many problems in this the main focus in the article being the taxes but I see that as only being half of the problem. Sometimes people may not visit the doctor for a whole year as some visit the doctor almost once a week and having to basically charge people who may not use it can be absurd. Yes, there are projection numbers for how much it will cost when that number can’t truly be predicted. If healthcare were to become free nationwide the number of visits I believe would increase, people would start going in for simple reasons rather than actually needing a doctor. This would also turn into more of a government controlled aspect of living, who knows if the government had another shutdown would people still have healthcare?
ReplyDeleteUniversal healthcare may appear to have too many opportunity costs attached to it for the United States, but I would be willing to bet that if other countries can afford it, so can we. The only thing that is stopping the government from actually taking a plan like Sander’s into action is the fact that the government doesn’t want to change its policies on spending more than half of the national budget on military. Even just a fraction of the hundreds of billions that the government spends on its military endeavors could be re-optimized and go towards universal health care instead. But, the government has been paying this much for the military for so long that it has started to feel like a necessity, and there is no way that the government will give up paying for something that they think they need and pay for something new instead.
ReplyDeleteI wasn’t aware of how many countries offer free healthcare to their citizens, but as I read I realized how expensive our medical bills can become and such a quick amount of time. Although paying for all medical bills might be extrenuouse, I feel as though the government should at least fund things such as an ambulance ride, which in some circumstances isn’t a choice by the citizen because they are in critical condition. On the other hand I do agree that our country would be in a lot more debt than we already are if the government started to fund all healthcare. This would most likely cause an increase in tax dollars from citizens as well, so in the end are we even paying less than we would if healthcare remains required?
ReplyDeleteIt is sad that there are people in our country who are unable to access our medical system as freely as needed. I found it shocking that the United States is the only developed country that doesn’t provide universal healthcare for all. Ideally it would be nice to provide universal healthcare for everyone, however, that would put our country even further into debt. I think increasing our country’s debt would have a widely negative impact on the other services that our country offers, and on our country as a whole. This could result in negative externalities for our citizens, especially those who can already afford healthcare. Perhaps we could dedicate slightly more funding to our programs that are already set in place, like Medicare or the Affordable Care Act, in order to widen the amount of people who have access to these programs.
ReplyDeleteHealthcare in America is a big problem. Other countries get free healthcare while some Americans can't even afford the most basic healthcare. It seems like we are a little stuck right now, because changing to a system that made healthcare free would only make our countries debt situation even worse. I do think we should have free healthcare, but its just a matter of where the money is going to come from. While some would view healthcare as a inelastic good, many people have no choice but to decline certain medical treatments because they can't afford it.
ReplyDeleteWhat's really holding us back is patent law; in America, you can get extensions on your patent if you improve your product, and this results in the insulin crisis. For some goods, like clothing or gadgets, patents are mostly fine, but for drugs, patents shouldn't be on the table for medicines like insulin or whichever specific antibiotic if it stands between poor people living and dying. The other thing is that nobody lobbies drug companies hard enough to get them to lower their prices. In Europe, equipment manufacturers competitively vie for low pricing, but that doesn't happen in America so everything is expensive.
ReplyDeleteTo what extent is the cost of Healthcare in America a symptom of other problems? Drugs are pushed up greatly in cost by companies desperate for a profit and the cost of schooling drives up the cost to become a doctor. This drives up the cost of hiring doctors and the two together are part of what makes it so exorbitant in cost.
ReplyDeleteAmerican's Healthcare system has been a problem for such a long time, it can be hard to date back the starting point. Seeing how other countries are able to provide free healthcare nation wide can be extremely intriguing as an American, however the price you have to pay for this luxury is overestimated. As beneficial as it could be to provide free healthcare nation wide, it may be out of our reach. Right now we have Americans complaining about not providing free healthcare, and if we were to make the switch, we would have Americans complaining about the additional tax cost, and other financial factors. I think we should continue to work in attempt to reach a free (or closer to free) healthcare plan until our country is stable enough to provide said luxury.
ReplyDeleteNow knowing that the United States is one of the only countries that does not offer a universal healthcare system this might push more people to side with the people that want this to occur. If this were to happen taxes would skyrocket which basically evens out to the price of health insurance. People tend to complain more about high taxes because they don’t know where the money is going than having a higher insurance bill because that is almost a necessity. I think that the health care system should stay the same because it has worked for many years and if it were to change there would be more complaints from people that end up paying more than when they just had to pay for their own healthcare.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do agree that healthcare in American can very negatively affect citizens around the country by being uninsured and that leading to debts on top of debts for that singular person, I do not believe that having the government having total control over the Health Care System is the best option. This is due to citizens having to pay for taxes they do not have to pay for themselves because the health insurance is not specifically for them and healthcare is contrasting for every person. As a result, Health Care being covered by taxpayer dollars could cause an increase in many taxes and ultimately end in more debts than the smaller amount that does not have proper Health Care.
ReplyDeleteNice job providing a sound objective analysis! The truth is, “Medicare for All” promises accessibility and affordability for everyone, but this would certainly diminish the quality of the medical care everyone would receive. This consequence applies to any public good or service. I think that it's also important to recognize that the United States is a medical innovation powerhouse that significantly outperforms all other countries in research and new treatment output. Such productivity is made possible by the expensive costs of healthcare that a portion of the population pays. Under a policy of universal healthcare for all, the United States would undoubtedly suffer the fall, or at least significant downsize of a major industry that not only is economically flourishing, but beneficial to humanity as a whole with the release of revolutionary medical breakthroughs. Individual patients would also suffer, as everyone would be forced to receive a sub-par "one size fits all" healthcare plan. "Medicare for all" may seem to work for other countries, but the US is fundamentally unlike other countries.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the healthcare system in the US is not good, but there is not many other alternative options that they can use to help the citizens out. Doctors will always demand more money than the average person which does not help the costs. Another reason is that we have no choice but to pay for it which gives them more leverage.
ReplyDeleteUniversal healthcare would impose a lower cost to the government than our current healthcare system would. That $32 trillion figure comes from a study by the Mercatus Center. This same study that you are referencing found that our current system would cost us $36 trillion over the next ten years. Universal healthcare is cheaper than our current system.
ReplyDeleteBut the question of how we pay for it is absolutely valid. Bernie has proposed multiple tax increases, most of which would have little to no effect on the middle class like a tax on wall street speculation. But even with this possible increase in taxes, I think it's important to mention that yes you pay slightly higher taxes however that is in exchange for not paying for health insurance so you actually end up saving money.
I understand that many view this idea as radical and thus unlikely. However the polls are telling a different story as more than half of the American population supports a single payer system. A universal healthcare bill is likely to come to fruition in America as it would save us money and it has the support of the people