The debate goes on, should the government be responsible for providing our health care?
There are many arguments for and against national healthcare.
At one time, everyone was responsible for their own health, there was no insurance. In that day and age, medical care was a lot less expensive than it is today, even taking into account the rate of inflation over the years.
The rise in cost has in part is because of all the new technology available today, but to a large degree, the rising cost is due to increased demand.
Because of the change in our national mentality, in a large part due to negotiated union contracts, everyone thinks their health care is free. Most have come to believe it is a right, a right no one pays for.
I’m a firm believer that affordable healthcare should be available to everyone.
However, because of the present system, very few people realize the cost of health care, and because it is presumably free to them, they go to the doctor for every little sniffle they get. Many visits are unnecessary and costly. People go to the emergency room for a skinned knee, or a splinter in their hand, these emergencies could be taken care of at home.
It has become “fashionable” to go to the emergency room.
Health insurance should be paid for by the individual. If each individual was responsible for their healthcare, they would become more knowledgeable on what “works” and what doesn’t.
Most companies that provide health insurance allocate a certain amount of wages for the payment of benefits including health insurance, whether they tell the employee or not.
The individual employee should be made aware of this, that money should be allocated to the individual so they can purchase their health care on an individual basis.
Thereby eliminating any corporate influence the company could exert on the insurance company, and it would open the insurance industry to more competition, that is always a good thing.
That would enable the individual to have more control over his health care and ensure his right to have or not have insurance.
In some cases, when both spouses work and are covered by their individual company insurance, both companies are providing and paying for health insurance and only one health plan is needed.
Therefore, money is wasted by the couple because they don’t use the insurance provided by one company. If the money was allocated to the employee, he or she could decide how to best use the money in a way that would benefit the couple instead of the money being flushed down the drain.
It would make the individual more responsible for his own health and welfare, and it would be his choice to have or not have health care.
If he chooses not to have health insurance, then he would be responsible for any charges incurred, and pay the consequences for not having insurance.
By cutting down on the demand by eliminating people going to a doctor or emergency room unless necessary, then the cost would naturally come down, and people would find the alternative, less expensive, better forms of treatment.
Of course, there will always be an element of society who are unable to care for themselves and they should be provided for, but there are far too many people abusing the system.
The only way to prevent that is for people to be in charge of their own health. Regardless of what you believe, no one, including the government will look after you like you will.
This is America, our country was founded on the idea of the individual being able to make his or her own choices concerning how to run their lives, it’s time we returned to those ideals and get government out of life management.
