Here's the reasons I've been confronted with:
- Cost: They think it'll cost more. They think our taxes will go up. Well, taxes will indeed go up, they're not wrong there, but they don't seem to think that it'll lower healthcare costs at all. I think it's just simple view most have. If we're giving healthcare to more people, and it'll be free to people who can't afford it that means that it'll cost overall more. They fail to realize how much the downward pressure can really lower prices for everyone, because that's a much more nuanced thing that just more people = more cost.
- Rationing: They think that because we'll have more people with healthcare we won't be able to take care of everyone, and so the government will step in and have to ration. People who "deserve it" (i.e. worked hard or whatever) won't get their care, and it someone else might. This reason falls directly below cost for a reason. It's because they think costs will go up that they think we'll have to do this.
- Wait times: This goes along with rationing. They think they'll have to wait forever for care because so many people will need it. I shit you not, though, I've had an argument with a staunch conservative that believed the Canadian healthcare system killed her grandma because of wait times.
- Government between you and your health: They have an irrationally large fear of government. I can't say I blame them. Our government does do some shitty things and has a lot of bureaucracy to it. That said, I'm not entirely sure why they forgive the bureaucracy and the insurance companies getting between you and your healthcare right now. I've seen so many people complain about their health insurance, but when they do that it's more of a "that's just the way it is" sort of thing.
- Government sucks at whatever it does: They use things like the DMV and the post office as examples, and everyone has a crappy time at these. They think that the private market fixes everything, but fail to see how healthcare really isn't like any other private market.
- Don't want to pay for other people's decisions: I realize that with insurance you're already doing this, but on a large scale I don't think people make the connection. They see universal healthcare as them having to pay for some dude who smokes his whole life and now wants them to pay for it. They see it as paying for some other guy who eats and McDonald's every day. They see it as paying for the guy that goes out and recklessly does stupid things and gets injured.
- They believe the USA is best: I think this is one of the bigger hurdles here. They don't want it because they hold the notion that we already have the best healthcare in the world. It's partially because of the rationing and wait times things I put up there, but also I think just because they have an overly inflated view of the USA in general. They don't like thinking that we're not good at something, or even the best at something. So when one little story of a Canadian coming over here gets out it gets passed around and inflated as a prideful America Fuck Yeah sort of thing. The second you even say you've got an idea from another country, Americans tend to recoil. We want only our own ideas. We want to be leaders, not followers. So, I think if there is a healthcare fix in their mind, they think it has to come from here. It has to be new.
- Europe's current debt problem: They believe that Europe's current recession and debt problem are brought on by entitlements, and healthcare is a part of that. They think that we'll be on a path to that kind of think if we were to implement such systems.