The radical left-wingers, like Bernie Sanders, want to fundamentally change our health care delivery system. Today, many people believe that we have the best health care delivery system in the world. There are many different surveys that have misleading details about medical outcomes. All we should do is look how our current system works for each of us.
For most seniors, we can call our doctor and get in to see him or her within a few days. If we need various tests, again, we can get those in just a few days. If we need to be in the hospital for a procedure it takes less than a week to get in. For me, that is the best health care delivery system in the world.
In places where they have some form of government run health care they have many issues:
1. There are often delays in getting in to see your regular doctor.
2. There are long delays to see a specialist. You could be dead before you get to see the cancer doctor. There are also delays in getting an MRI or a CT scan.
3. There are long delays to get needed operations like a knee replacement or a hip replacement to eliminate very painful situations. That is why we here about Canadians flying into America to get an operation that they would need to wait a long time to get in Canada.
4. Many government run health care systems do not pay doctors, nurses, hospitals and other professionals any where what they make in America. To make single payer work it is going to be necessary to lower the income of doctors, nurses and hospitals. They may decide to boycott such a change to their life styles.
5. There is already a shortage of doctors in America. If you add another 10,000,000 doctor visits per year how will the current system absorb the increase in demand?
6. Do we really want to screw up the system we now have based upon some speculation that the next system will be better? Better for who??
7. Who is going to pay for all of this new “free” stuff? There will need to be tax increases on the folks who pay taxes now. That means employers and employees will see their costs for medical items go up. Yes, there are arguments that the net increase in costs will be minimal. Everyone knows how well the post office is run.
8. Right now if your doctor screws up you can sue him. With government run health care, the system will need to limit the ability of consumers to sue the government. With less risk there will be less care taken to insure you get quality health care services. Again, think of the post office or your local DMV office.
9. The proponents of M4A believe they can get massive reductions in cost for medicines. That may be true; however, the drug companies will not just take the hit. They will likely stop spending billions on research and development. That means all of the wonderful new drugs we get each year will start to dry up.
10. When the government runs our health care system there will ultimately be rationing. The friends of the elites will come first and the rest of will have to wait. Seniors today have Medicare system that takes great care of them.
11. Adding millions of illegals to our health care system may save a little money in terms of costs of operating emergency rooms where they get a lot of their health care. However, the massive interruptions and delays under the new government run system will far out weigh those savings.