The Decreases: Doctors, Earnings, Services, and much more.
The Decreases that come with Universal Healthcare
We previously spoke about the increases that would come along with universal healthcare, but what about the decreases? Is this a positive or a negative? Well, you will soon learn that any positive externality of universal healthcare is pseudo. The decreases that will inevitably come along with granting universal healthcare are as follows: doctors, doctors wages, medical services, and the quality and availability of health screenings and treatments. Man, more and more downsides, with very little, if any, upsides. Without further ado, let’s wrap up this series with a more in-depth explanation of what you will find diminished if healthcare was granted a right to all.
The Decreases: Doctors and their Wages
After reading about the increases that would arise from providing healthcare as a right to all, you start to wonder if the supply will now meet the newfound demand. From the numbers I have study, the demand for healthcare doubles, the use of healthcare doubles, and the wait time doubles. The Association of American Medical Colleges predicted a upcoming “shortfall” of nearly 63,000 doctors by the year 2015. This is directly due to the rising number of new patients under ACA. Now, if healthcare was a right that was extended to all, this number could and would be much worse. [26]
Now since we already know it would decrease the number of doctors, let's talk about the wages of doctors, and the single-payer system in which the government will pay for the healthcare bills (one being Medicare). When you look at the years 1998-2009 you will see a reduced payment to physicians in three different years. In 2009, payments made by Medicare providers were nearly 20% below those that were paid out by that of private insurance. [27] When looking at countries that have universal healthcare you will notice that the physician's income is 30% lower than that of the US. If you were to lower the payments to doctors in the US, you would see a large reduction in the number of young people entering the profession, which logically leads to a shortage in supply.
The Decreases: Quality and Availability of Treatments and Screenings
When you grant healthcare as a right to all (universal healthcare) there will be a certain number of outcomes for disease treatment that will worsen. For example, in the US there is a 5-year survival rate for all cancers which is 65%, that is 10% higher than Europe. [28] The US has a higher 5-year survival rate than all of the countries that offer universal healthcare. The US also holds the highest prostate and breast cancer survival rates in the entire world. [29] The US also holds a higher survival rate after strokes and heart attacks than the OECD average. These things will all decrease if the US were to grant healthcare as a right to all.
The Decreases: Medical Services
Lastly, when you grant healthcare as a right to all ( universal healthcare) you will a rationing of medical services by the government. You will see this because the government is now in control over all medical services. The government will do this by rationing things like distribution, budgeting, price setting, and even service restrictions. [30] The United Kingdom rations their medical services by using something called cost-benefit analysis. For example, “ in 2008 any drug that provided an extra six months of "good-quality" life for £10,000 ($15,150) or less was automatically approved, while one that costs more might not be.” [31] It is inevitable. When health care is nationalized, medical services will be rationed. [32]
