Information About Universal Health Care

Health care reform was a leading issue in the 2008 presidential elections, with every candidate called to take a stance on how to care for the 45 million or more Americans without insurance and cut the high per capita costs of the American health care system. Advocates of a universal health care system claim that it would cut the unnecessary cost of insurance bureaucracy, which consumes about a third of all money spent on American health care, according to Physicians for a National Health Program

History

In the United States, a universal health care system, also called single-payer national health insurance, has been advocated by politicians and health care professionals for almost a century, but became a household conversation topic under President Barack Obama's health care reform. Many industrialized nations, such as Canada, Great Britain and other European countries, provide some form of universal health care for their citizens and have since the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Germany has the oldest universal coverage, which began in 1883 as compulsory insurance for worker illnesses.

Features

A single-payer health care system is organized so that all Americans receive basic health care coverage, including preventative care and prescription drug costs, while a health care tax would replace their current medical insurance premiums and additional medical bills. Instead of purchasing a medical insurance plan from a private provider, regional nonprofit organizations would administer all spending for health care expenses for all Americans. The organization would be funded by tax dollars and pay health care providers directly for services rendered.

Benefits

Universal health care is advocated by some proponents of health care reform because of the opportunity to eliminate wasteful spending in the private sector of the American health care system and to make health care more widely available to people who are not currently insured. Universal health care would also help curb the rising costs of health care premiums for people who currently have insurance and for employers who provide insurance to workers. Although a single-payer system has many benefits, it would require a massive overhaul of the currently highly privatized American health care system.

Misconceptions

One argument that has been refuted by many residents of countries that already have national health care services is that universal health care would result in much longer waits to receive care. While opponents of universal health care believe that health care reform would results in less flexibility for patients in choosing health care providers and for doctors in choosing medical procedures, in fact patients would still be able to choose their own doctor and doctors would continue to make decisions about treatment options.

Considerations

One of the arguments against a universal health care system is that the competition between private companies in the health care industry has led to many of the innovations and cutting-edge procedures that exist in the United States. While opponents to universal health care also argue that it would eliminate a large number of jobs provided by private insurance and pharmaceutical sales companies, proponents of a single-payer system argue that these jobs are part of a costly and unnecessary bureaucracy and some suggest that those workers should be guaranteed new positions under a reformed system.