Universal Health Care treats the symptom, not the disease.
14 million people are without health insurance because they can't afford it. Health insurance is expensive because health care is more expensive for those that are insured. Health care is more expensive for those that are insured to make up for the mandated health care provided at emergency rooms to those that are not insured - and to those on government health care plans that set fixed prices for services, like TriCare. Health care is also expensive so doctors can afford malpractice insurance. Malpractice insurance is expensive because of the sheer volume of malpractice cases filed in this country (not to mention the occasional multi-million dollar punitive award). The volume of malpractice cases is due SOLELY to the cancer of the sense of entitlement that pervades this country.
During the depression, the US Govt didn't go around handing people money to feed themselves and say "It's OK, we'll get through this. Here's some money, now just stay at home and things will get better. We promise." Not hardly. Instead, they created programs like the WPA which built bridges, dams and highways in order to create jobs so that people could work, make money, not starve, and most importantly, NOT GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING. Somewhere along the way, this idea has become lost to most government programs and we've conditioned the less fortunate to expect to get payed to do nothing.
Let's take Afghanistan, for example. In 2001, when an errant bomb killed a civilian, the Aghan culture (who was very conditioned to hardship) relied on the Muslim concept of Inshala to explain it and deal with it. Sometimes it's Allah's will that bad things happen to you, or put another way, life's a bitch, don't try to understand it, you'll just go crazy. To win hearts and minds, we began employing the practice of distributing solatia payments when innocent lives were lost or property damaged. Initially, this was meant just as a symbolic gesture to show that we acknowledge the loss, and did not mean it - another concept that goes far in the Afghan culture. Now, after 7 years, we are teaching the Afghan people the concept of entitlement. Whenever property is damaged in a village, surrounding property owners will damage their own property because they know the payouts are coming and want in on it. Village elders will use aid projects as leverage against rivals and fights will break out during feel good "licky and chewy" handouts.
You wanna fix health care, giving it away is not the answer. Make it affoardable, but keep it something you must earn.
