In this election year many of the politicians on the Left will find any issue and turn it into their favor by focusing on the negative. Health-care has become a major issue and a talking point with terms like: "universal health-care" and "affordable health-care" designed to appeal to the emotional side of peoples brain. The big problem is most people are not that stupid and can see the big picture.
Despite what people say in the media about all the millions of people who have no health insurance, everyone has access to quality health-care. We have the best hospitals in the world and whether you are a citizen or not if you are sick or injured you can get treatment regardless of anything. Having health insurance has nothing to do with having quality health-care.
Focusing on the millions of people who have no health insurance without putting the number into context is appealing to emotions and not thinking logically. In 2004 the estimated number of people with health insurance was close to 250 million or 84.3% of the population. This is up 2 million from the year before. We are hardly reaching a crisis state as the Liberals and the media like to portray if 84.3% of the population has health insurance and 100% has access to a doctor at any time.
So what are the Democrats proposing? Many when they talk of universal health care are basically hiding the fact they are leaning toward socialized medicine and of course much higher taxes. This just simply doesn't work and a great example is the present condition of our public school system. The government cannot handle control of such a massive entity and this is why free market solutions are far better.
What about other countries that have socialized medicine? Lets take Canada for example. Canadians pay anywhere from 35 to 45% of their income in taxes. A study by the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, of nations with universal health care found that Canada spends most and is ranked lowest in things like access to physicians and other health related indicators of success. The average wait for a hospital service in 2007 was 18 weeks in Canada.
In comparison the average ten year poverty rates for the US is lower at close to 12% versus close to 15% in Canada. Even with our system the way it is with many people with no health insurance compared Canada's everyone has government insurance, 75% of people who make less than $25,000 a year have health insurance and the wait for services is no longer than someone making many times that. There are many studies that have shown preferential treatment to people who are higher on the pay-scale in Canada.
Right here and now we have issues with our health-care system, but these issues haven't reached the point we need our government to take over. We don't need to scrap our system we need to make it better. Taxing the crap out us and trying to create a health-care system managed by the government is crazy. We need only look at other countries who have tried the same. Socialism does not work and never has in a free market.
