The idea of a nationalized healthcare system has been around for a long time, and like most other social ideas, it sounds good when you first hear it.  Healthcare for everyone in the United States would be a dream come true for lots of families but the problems with universal healthcare far outweigh the benefits.  Many countries have tried this and failed because of some basic ideas that aren’t even being considered.

1. The Competition – or lack there of.  One of the things that made this country great is the free market principle of competition.  Doctors spend years in medical school to graduate and join the ranks of practicing MDs.  When they do, they usually have huge debts to repay and big dreams of being successful, rich doctors.  Competition creates winners and these doctors strive to be the best so they can make a name for themselves and ultimately make more money.  In a universal healthcare system, the government decides what a doctor can charge and they all make the same amount.  There is no longer a reason for a doctor to strive to be the best because there is no reward for doing so.  This hinders medical advancement and makes everyone take the same sub-standard healthcare ; it also greatly reduces the drive for people to become doctors at all.  I understand that the need to help others should always come first, but that won’t pay off years of student loans and put food on the table.
2. The Cost – somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 trillion per year.  That makes the recent stimulus package from congress seem small by comparison.  Large numbers like this tend to fall on deaf ears because no one really knows how much that is.  To give you an idea, it’s $10,000 per year for every person living in this country.  The reason healthcare costs have risen to where they are is because we have already begun moving toward socialized healthcare for several years now.  It works like this:  Medicare and Medicaid put about 20% of the country in a free healthcare program, but someone has to pay for it; so the other 80% see a rise in their healthcare costs.  This causes more people from the 80% to lose their healthcare because they can no longer afford it and they join the other 20% who are getting it for free.  Healthcare costs continue to rise for those who are paying for it as more and more people get it for free; but in the end, this money has to come from somewhere.  The only way to fix this problem is to un-socialize the system and make healthcare affordable to more people.  One company with a solution is Ameriplan Health .  In this health program, doctors offer big discounts for all their services in exchange for payment from the patient… no insurance or big government to get in the way.
3. The Government – can’t do anything efficiently.  Every program that our government has taken over dies a slow death.  They have ruined retirement with social security, and forced more people into poverty through welfare.  This is the same group of people that pay $5,000 for a toilet seat.  Most of the people on capital hill have never had to worry about healthcare and have no idea how it works.  They are interested in your vote; and if universal healthcare sounds good to you, they will be happy to do it regardless of right or wrong.  Good healthcare is not a right… it’s a privilege that should be worked for and cherished, not handed out.

I wish everyone could have the best healthcare but that is not the world we live in.  We should endeavor to make it as affordable as possible for as many people as possible, but the more "free" it becomes, the worse it will get.