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The Universal Healthcare System

Decent Essays

The health care system in the United States is one of the greatest concerns facing Americans today and is an issue both moral and economic in nature. Some think the system should stay, for all intents and purposes, the same. They believe that the right to healthcare is a stepping stone toward socialism, and that it is the responsibility of the individual to obtain health care. These are usually the more ideologically conservative citizens and politicians who believe that medicine should remain a free enterprise, not to be constrained by government interference. Then there are those who believe that healthcare is a right, and the federal government has a responsibility to make sure it is available to all citizens, not just those who can afford …show more content…

While some argue that a switch to universal healthcare will cost up to $1.5trillion,4 there are other factors at play that influence the economy. Most Americans have health insurance through their employer which causes a huge financial strain on that employer, which is in turn reflected in product and service prices. If the price of goods and services goes up, that could end up hurting the United States’ global competitiveness. Citizens are unwilling to leave their current employer and possibly start their own business for fear of not being able to afford health insurance on their own.5 Some of those would-be entrepreneurs could create the next big product that becomes a critical part of the national economy. On average, the typical family of four in America pays over $20,000 annually on health insurance,7 money that could be pushed back into the economy. This is all in addition to the societal costs caused by the lack of universal health care such as fewer years in the workforce, caused by poor health, and higher cost to public programs like Medicare and the criminal justice system.5 If someone is uninsured until they reach the appropriate age to enroll in Medicare, they could have pre-existing, otherwise preventable conditions that will end up costing more money than it would have to treat them in the first place. In 2005, economist Dr. Kenneth Thorpe published a report in which he calculated the overall

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