The Decreases: Cost of Healthcare and Medical Bankruptcies and Closing Remarks
Cost of Healthcare
When instituting a right to health care it could lower the cost of healthcare in the US. When a study was taken in 2013, it stated that under a single-payer system, which is when all citizens are guaranteed a right to health care, total public and private healthcare spending could be lowered by nearly 600 billion dollars in 2014, and up to 1.8 trillion dollars over the next decade or so due to lowered cost for administrative and prescription drugs. (1) According to the American Medical Association, private health insurance plans spend about 11% of premiums on administrative cost vs. the 6% spent by public health programs. (2) Also, a study taken by the American Jornal of Public Health, Canada, a country that does in fact provide universal rights to healthcare, spends around half as much per capita than the US. (3) Once again, in 2010 the United Kingdom, which is another country that offers a right to universal healthcare, also managed to provide healthcare to each and everyone of its citizens while spending just a little under half of what the US did.
Medical Bankruptcies
A right to healthcare could stop medical bankruptcies. Almost all of the 62% of bankruptcies were related to medical expenses in 2007, (4) and nearly 80% of these bankruptcies were filed by people who already had medical insurance. (5) In 2010, there was a total of 30 million Americans who were contacted by a collection agency about a medical bill. (6) Let’s assume all US citizens were provided healthcare under a single payer system. Medical bankruptcy would no longer exist, because the government, not private citizens, would pay the bills.
Closing Remarks
It is hard to put into words all of these facts. At first glance they seem completely contradictory to eachother, but I think there is a middle ground. Of course with anything there will be a bias. There is no way for anyone to come to a set of facts completely neutral, and often times I think "facts" come about just by extreme bias. As you read the postion for universal healthcare, you will see a lot of claims like this, " the government will pay, instead of the people." These remarks are things that I saw during the research. I don't know what it is about American's, but they must not understand the basics of economics- THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH. Whatever money the government has it is coming straight from the pockets of Americans. In my conclusion of the facts, I believe the Unviersal Healthcare propsotion would be funded by an act of larceny, and I can not support it.
