by Mark Bearing

Created on: August 28, 2009   Last Updated: May 12, 2011

I've changed my tune on the idea of a universal health care system. I am still not a fan of discretion being under the control of any government official when it comes to my health but the more I see the rising costs of healthcare combined with the unavoidable television smothering by pharmaceutical ads, I really cannot help but begin to wonder where the savings might exist.

Try to imagine an America one day where a man could walk into his doctor and describe his diminished sex drive and have his doctor then say, "Here, take this and it will fix your problems."

"What is it?" the Man would ask.

"It is the erectile dysfunction drug"

The operative word in that sentence for the purposes of this imagined world is "the", as in "the only", erectile dysfunction drug. In this world, Healthcare is now a department of the Federal Government and all Pharmaceutical companies have been shut down. After the system went public, all of the best scientist from Viagra and Cialis and that one with the fire in the commercial have come together to work at the government drug research division. These men and women work freely, without the corporate pressure or competition, where they can place all of their focus on making the most effective and safe drugs possible. It is the same with all drugs in all health fields; cardiovascular, pulmonary, mental health, etc. And in this world, without private sector competition, the cost of the drugs is truly based solely upon how much it costs to create the drug and maintain the institution. There is no pressure to maximize sales during remaining patent life before a drug goes "over the counter" and there are no corporate retreats or advertising that need funding. Advertising alone must account for at least ten percent of a drugs cost considering the billions of dollars spent in the industry each year. Try to think about how many Lipitor or Uloric commercials you've seen in the last week alone.

Now it would be naive to think that moving the system towards a bureaucracy run by the government wouldn't come with added costs of its own but when all the private entities are consolidated I believe that it is better to try an control one mess of management rather than a thousand. And with one company there is no need to waste money on all the excess that appears to be breeding like rabbits in the system today. Another positive towards a single payer system run by the government is that those in charge of the system would be chosen by elected officials.

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