Aaron said:
Universal health care will be cheaper in the long run, especially if it's decently managed. Right now we have a huge problem with the uninsured getting sick and doing nothing until it's a critical issue, then going to the ER when they have to be accepted, risking their own health and costing the hospital a hell of a lot more money if they were insured and took care of things at the start. That puts the burden on the hospital, which gets passed onto the government, and then back to the tax payers. Other problems are the cost of malpractice suits, the unchecked rising cost of medicine, and the cost drain on the system caused by the obese and other self-inflicted health problems.
The system needs a complete overhaul. 'Free' healthcare can and won't work, but universal healthcare is absolutely one step that needs to be taken. As someone who works in a hospital, McCain's plan is ignorant to the point of insulting.
The inefficiencies of our current system are not going to bettered by simply enacting universal health care. It will likely make it even worse.
We all know how the uninsured are rising prices. Even if tort reform was nationalized, it makes up too little of total costs. Tort reform should have happened a long time ago and it would have curtailed rising malpractice costs. There are just too many problems that UHC doesn't even come close to fixing. UHC will fix the problem of people with no insurance, sure. But at what price? This price may not be in dollars but in the level of care.
UHC won't do a single thing to stave off rising health care costs. Drug prices certainly won't go down. Costs will continue to rise and the tax payer will get killed. We pay 15% GDP right now on health care - which is over 40% of all health care expenses in the US. The current government system in place covers 30% of the nation and provides dismal coverage. The tract record for US government health care is horrible.
For example, Medicare, which makes up a majority of that 30% has been hit by cuts, not in the program costs, but in the amount given to doctors by 10%. Many doctors no longer see new Medicare patients because it is no longer economically feasible. The shortage of primary care doctors in the nation is growing. UHC doesn't fix any of these problems, and those are just what I could think of.
I say this as a son of an Internist and a RN, a nephew of an Orthopedic surgeon, a former worker of a research med hospital, and am currently employed in the pharmaceutical industry.
Edit: Don't get the wrong idea though. Managed care is worse. And I'll spare you guys my Medicaid and prescription drug costs rants.
