Health care is increasingly expensive in the United States, is it time to adopt European style universal health care? – Part 8

No argue 40 million uninsured United citizens, cost health care swiftly [ Expensive that the average family cannot even afford health insurance premiums, that there's something wrong with our health care system, but adopting a universal health care plan in not the answer.

In the United States today, there does not seem to be one single Government agency that works efficiently and economically, so does anyone believe that our current government could manage a universal health care plan? Citizens would [ quickly | swiftly find that their taxes would be increased in order to pay for their own health plan and the plans of others, and for citizens who currently have their own medical insurance, this would [ quickly | swiftly outweigh their current premiums. In the long run, it would be the middle class who is gouged the worst by this system.

In addition to an increase in taxes, citizens would soon find that seeing a doctor, even for what some Consider an emergency, would take much longer. In countries where these kinds of plans have been adopted, it isn't unheard of to wait up to 3 months for a regular Doctors visit and sometimes over a year for what are considered elective surgeries. Patients would be hustled in to an office like cattle and given impersonal care, because the need for Doctors to keep their client base would no longer be an issue; patients would not get to choose their own Physicians in most cases.

Possibly the worst part of this kind of system is the way that people who take pride and care in their health will end up having to pay for those who do not. For instance, a person who is in good health and rarely visits a Physician except for annual check-ups will end up paying the same for health care (in the way of taxes) as someone who smokes, drinks, is severely overweight and doesn’t manage their health through exercises and diet control.

In the end, while our current system is not perfect, it is better than a country where people lose personal control of something as important as health care.