Criticism of Universal HealthcareJoin now to read essay Criticism of Universal HealthcareCurrently, there are many people in the U.S. who are uninsured, and many people see universal health care as a solution. The problem is that the concept is not as simple as it sounds. There are many flaws and sacrifices that come along with the system, and that is what most Americans are unaware about. Universal health care is defective because of the government’s inability to pay excess costs, the poorer quality and tardiness of health care services, and the doctors’ limited access to cutting edge technology and modern medicine due to government cost control. Since the government must pay for everyone’s health care, expenses can be overwhelming, and the government must cut down funding on other programs and raise taxes. With these high expenditures, the medical procedures and access to modern technology and medicine must be strictly controlled to only adequate health services.
Since universal health care covers everyone’s health services in the nation, costs are too astronomical for the government to control without raising taxes and reducing funding for other programs. Canada is an example of a country that embraces universal health care, but currently deals with some issues in the system. “What matters, however, is that federal support for health, postsecondary education, and social services has been steadily reduced as successive governments have struggled with deficit financing and massive national indebtedness” (Naylor 4). In Canada, the provincial governments’ support for many programs is deteriorating and is causing national indebtedness. Universal health care is a major contributor to the massive debts and as a result, the government must curb their expenses for most of its agencies or divisions. With the cost of universal health care covering everyone’s insurance, support for other programs must decrease. Not only do other programs weaken, the universal health care system also bleeds support. In Canada, health care spending on doctors and hospitals has steadily decreased from 1987 to 1997. Naylor states,
“Moreover, the wave of hospital closures and cutbacks has been profoundly disturbing to the public […] Politicians and bureaucrats point to rising expenditures on drugs and home care as the logical offsets to this downsizing of the institutional sector, but the public remains unsettled.”
According to politicians and bureaucrats, the increasing expenses on drugs and home care have diminished spending on doctors and hospitals, shrinking the hospital sector. The closures have been disturbing to the public and damaging local economies. This is an example of how the government must decrease funding for one institution to increase funding for another area in a universal health care system. All institutions cannot excel when cost is an issue. These reductions are hurting health care by limiting and restricting access to doctors, medical tools, and procedures.
“The institute compared health care systems in the industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and found Canada currently spends the most, yet ranks among the lowest on such indicators as access to physicians, quality of medical equipment, and key health outcomes” (Cihak 1).
The Vancouver-based Fraser Institute’s comparison of health care systems of industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) indicates that Canada’s expenditures on health care are among the highest. Although Canada spends the most, its health care is among the lowest quality. The price of universal healthcare surpasses the government’s budget, and therefore, the government cannot control such an expensive program without limiting health care itself. Therefore, universal health care outputs too many expenses and “steals” money from other programs. Canada’s inefficient system displays the poor quality of health care in exchange for the high price of free insurance.
With expenses out of hand, the government must find other ways to control and alleviate the outburst of debts that universal health care causes. To help lower costs, procedures and services are kept to a minimal sufficiency. This leads to poorer quality of health care and longer waiting times. Canada’s limited health care and extensive queues are an example of the effects of universal health care due to the shortage of services. Huntoon states, “Their government rations access to health care and thus attempts to control costs by making MRI scans, radiation oncology, bypass surgeries and many other health services largely unavailable to their own people.” In Canada, the government must control the costs of insurance by reducing expensive procedures such as MRI scans and bypass surgeries. The limited access to such procedures contributes to the poor quality of health care from universal coverage that is given to
The Conservative government’s attempts to expand access to health care in the next government will be met with opposition from the majority of Canadians.
For example, Huntoon (1,732) opposes efforts to expand access to insurance coverage in the health care system.
In addition to a proposed policy offering universal health care, the Conservative government also promises to reform the provincial public insurance exchanges. Currently the public-private pilot project (3,947) is in the works with various providers, but Huntoon estimates the rate to be $30 million per year for a first phase.
The Conservative government is also looking to reform the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which it called an “unauthorized health insurance transfer.” The government hopes to get rid of the cap on individual health insurance premiums, which would increase health care costs by up to $200 a year. Huntoon states the new law “would allow health insurance to be exchanged at the national and provincial level for individual-owned health plans by the federal government, thereby preserving a nationalized exchange between state and private insurers.[b]
The Conservative government is also looking to increase access to quality-of-life policies.
Canada has had an extensive health care program for nearly two centuries. The Public Health Agency of Canada, which covers 90% of Canadian households, provided universal health insurance from 1900 on through the 1930s. Current and former Canadian health care providers rely on federal government funding for health care services for less income than they pay directly to employers, and access to public funds would come as a result.
In the past, health care providers were paid at least in part in public health care. For 20 plus years, as the health care sector became more and more affordable, health insurance providers held a large number of privately owned homes, often in the community, on which to buy coverage. Once they were able to avoid paying any more than was prescribed, health insurance providers were able to fill in their gaps with government funds. For example, the Canadian Association of General Medical Officers created a program in 1936 that made it very difficult to determine eligibility for public health coverage. The CAGO Program would provide health insurance coverage to people with private residences with large home values. The program had limited benefits, and it was mostly dependent on government funds and federal dollars. In 1949, the CAGO Program closed, and Health Canada was closed as of 1986.”,”p>
The Conservatives are also looking to expand access to health care by making Medicare public, which can be done through provincial or municipal government sources, and reducing the age at which a person can retire. This proposal would replace Medicare in the form of a single-payer health plan, similar to what the Canadian Hospital Association and Canadian Institute of Health Sciences do today. A similar proposal is under consideration by the federal government to reduce the age at which people can earn and participate in paid work.[b]
The Conservatives believe that in our economy, when it comes to quality of life, the primary responsibility of governments is to provide health care services that help maintain a population’s quality and wellbeing. It should be obvious to anyone who has ever attended a public health institution that the current system is inadequate to provide that care. In Canada, Canadians and their families also hold the responsibility to care for a health system we have not yet recognized as such. This responsibility includes having a system in place that provides those who need them to use those services as well as those who do not, and creating a system where those services are available to all