The Increases: Debt, Deficit, Wait-Time, Abuse.
The Increases that come Universal Health Care
Increase, an instance of growing or making greater. But what exactly is going to be increased? Well, that is a great question. If health care became a right for all American citizens the following increases would arise: the US debt and deficit, the wait time for medical services, taxes, and the overuse of health care products and their resources. Now tell me which of those sounds appealing? I will help you answer that- NONE. But let’s get down to the details of how these previously listed items will be increased, and what it means for you (the reader).
The Increases: US Debt and Deficit
In 1985, the federal budget for health care totalled less than 10%, but by 2012 the budget for health care programs doubled to 21% of the budget. {78] According to Paul Ryan (Current Speaker of the House), the government healthcare programs are “ driving explosive growth in our spending and debt.” [18] The percentages should speak for themselves. The government has doubled their spending on these programs, and haven’t profited enough money from their current revenue to offset the cost. Many studies that were taken about the ACA ( Obamacare), conclude that the overall expansion of this coverage will actually increase the deficit by $340-700 billion in just the first decade alone. [19][20] Even with all this increase in spending on healthcare, it is estimated that Obamacare will still leave some 30 million people without healthcare coverage. [21] If everyone was covered, it would increases the federal deficit even more than what it is under Obamacare.
The Increases: Wait Time for Medical Services
Now this is a big one, if healthcare was granted to everyone as a right, it would drastically increase the wait time for medical services. For example, Medicaid- which is a social health care program for families and individuals with low income or limited resources- is a federally funded single-payer system of healthcare. According to a study that was taken in 2012 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), nearly 10% of people under Medicaid coverage had a lot of trouble getting their needed care directly due to the long wait times. Now comparing to those who were covered under their private healthcare provider who had a report of only 4.2% of people not getting their care due to wait times. So, when comparing the two, the percent of people that won’t get covered due to wait time doubles! [22] In the US, a little over 9% of its citizens wait longer than two months when trying to see a specialist, the closest number to that when looking at a country whom offers a right to healthcare, would be France at 28%. [23]
The Increases: Overuse of Healthcare Resources
When you grant healthcare as a right to all (universal healthcare) and not make them directly responsible for the involved cost of the services, they are more then likely to access, or utilize, more than what would be necessary, this is a phenomenon called “moral hazard.” [24] According to a study done by Brookings Institute, before Medicaid went into effect, people who were living below the line of poverty were seeing physicians 20% less than those who were above the poverty line. But, just 11 years later after Medicaid went into effect, people who were below the poverty line were seeing physicians 18% more than those who were above the poverty line and not on Medicaid. [25] Because Medicaid already provides a right to healthcare for individuals with a low income, if you were to expand this right to each and every citizen it would further worsen the problem.
