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Medical professionals in the United States are among the most respected in the world. The quality of care in this country is unparalleled in any other nation. Heads of state, influential figures, and the wealthy from all parts of the world flock to the United States to get the very best care and treatment available on the planet. It isn't cheap, but that's exactly why it's so good. As in any profession, the best and the brightest drive its quality. They are dedicated to continually make the best better because they are rewarded for their efforts. They are highly compensated and widely recognized for their breakthroughs.

Universal health care in the United States would be disastrous. As with any program run by the government, the decision makers would be bureaucrats who focus on the bottom line and invite corruption and mismanagement. They would institute policies and procedures that would ultimately stifle innovation and advancement by removing the profit motive from great discoveries or breakthroughs. Fewer people will go into medical school and even fewer will come out.

The term 'universal' applies to everyone, which means that at any time, any one can go see the doctor for whatever reason. What will the lines be like when all the people who once couldn't afford to see a doctor for minor aches and pains line up to do so? Imagine an emergency room where nothing is really an emergency and all patients are seen on a criticality scale. How long will the wait be? For routine care, how long will it take to get an appointment?

Both Canada and Great Britain have universal health care, so there is a model to look at to see how it will be for Americans. Appointments alone can take months to get. Specialty treatments are the same way, very difficult to get. Surgeries can be scheduled for over a year away. Approximately 95% of Canada's population lives within 100 miles of the United States' northern border. When care is important enough to need the very best, Canadians come to the U.S. In England, their health care administrators have refused to pay for quality-of-life expensive medications for terminally ill patients. These circumstances are not the talked-about results of instituting such a program, but they are inevitable consequences.

When the government provides something free, you may be assured there is a catch. That catch in this case is the ability to make all the medical decisions for every American. What does that mean for individual freedom? It means the only choices you will have will be to purchase your own medical insurance at what will be astronomical rates or pay nothing and play by the government's rules. If you pay for your own, what do you think the private medical care will be like? With few people paying for private medical insurance anymore because the government provides it free, only the very good and very expensive will be able to afford to keep their own practices open. With so few of them, getting appointments with them may take as long as those with the government. With such a backlog, they will be able to charge whatever they want, so health care for those who opt out of the government system will cost exponentially more than it does today.

To sum it all up, universal health care means one of two things: Either you give up your right to make your own medical care decisions, or you give up a great deal more money than if universal health care didn't exist. Do the research yourself. This is something free that no one should want.

Learn more about this author, Donald Finley.
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