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Did someone die and leave my government millions and billions of dollars that I never knew existed? No? Well, we may have a problem with how the government will pay for all this medical care. While it might seem like they are doing the population a favor by footing the bill, there are real holes in this concept and I can smell a bait and switch in that kind of proposal and here are a few reasons I oppose this concept.

1. Universal health care must be paid for out of tax dollars. There are no magic trees where funds grow. The government could take from one area to give to this one, but it is more likely that taxes will increase across the board and I believe I pay enough as it is. Most countries with socialized medicine, which is what is being discussed, have tax rates that are closer to fifty percent. Take everything you pay currently, like four dollars for gas, and add fifty percent to that total. That one dollar loaf of bread is now two dollars. The money must come from the people and I, for one, have a real problem in paying twice as much for care that may or may not come expediently and may or may not be that good.

2. Universal health care means all doctors, surgeons, dentists, etc. are paid equally according to their position. Two equally qualified surgeons who are on the government's payroll will be paid equally...even if one graduated at the bottom of his/her class. Even if one attends medical seminars to stay up on the latest techniques and one does not. Socialized medicine takes away the competition of a free market economy where the best and the brightest are rewarded by making more money. In the medical field, I think I like this kind of competition for my business.

3. The Government will be able to mandate preventative health screenings. While I am a prudent person who likes to be told I am healthy, I absolutely cringe at the idea of my government having so much control of my life that they make my coverage dependent on whether or not I choose to have a colonoscopy at 50 or a yearly Pap smear. That much intervention into my private life is too much for me. However, if they are paying for it all, they do have the right to mandate my preventative care and I cannot stomach that idea.

4. When the government pays for everything, it will not be able to tell people that one person is any more deserving of treatment than another. While this might sound great in theory, I propose a real life situation for consideration. One such case that happened in a country where socialized medicine is proclaimed as the greatest thing in the world, absolutely horrified me. A lady had a uterine tumor. She was diagnosed in January, but was on the waiting list for an MRI until May. When she visited the US in May, she was still waiting for the MRI, a simple diagnostic test that she could have had the very first day if she lived here. Unfortunately, she had to wait her turn. Surgery could not be scheduled until after the MRI, so she was looking at October or November for a non-life threatening procedure. This socialized system was the equivalent of making her wait her turn in a soup line, regardless of her discomfort. Because the government was paying for it, she had no recourse but to wait her turn, no matter how long that would be.

While there are many reasons that this kind of benefit is no benefit at all, those are the top three reasons I am opposed to the idea. Anyone who believes that the government is doing us a favor in taking more control of our lives needs to reassess just how invasive the government is in the lives of private citizens currently and then imagine just how much worse it could be.

Learn more about this author, Lisa Doherty.
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