One of the biggest debates in America today is healthcare. I cannot speak for the attitude of older generations towards the issue of government in healthcare, but among my generation, the attitude, at least among the more vocal ones, tends to be like this:
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"Free" healthcare. To all those who think it would solve the problems with our healthcare systems, please listen carefully.
"Free" healthcare is the idea that every medical institution in the entire country is paid for and run by the government. All of the expenses in running it are paid for by taxes, so technically it could be considered free, since the payment for services does not come in the form of a medical bill. But before getting emotional with the claim "Free healthcare is what any decent human being would do and is worth massively high taxes", let's go back to the fact that everything that has anything to do with your health would be run by the government.
The government. The same government that fails so often, the same government whose failures just recently led to the deaths of many in recent shootings, the same government whose VA health program is infamous in our country for being so terrible...this is who you want controlling your health?
How do you think it will turn out when you give the government power over your health? Power corrupts. And when the government gets involved in healthcare, innocent people die.
In the UK, yet another possibly treatable child is being left to die and the parents and other countries can do nothing about it. You might think incidents like this aren't that common, but an online British newspaper reports that decisions to end children's lives happen frequently in their hospitals, they just aren't usually protested. The doctors insist it would be wrong to let the child suffer, although they won't let other eyes see him to prove his brain is as damaged as they say it is. The judges turned down every offer to get Alfie Evans lifted out to protect the image in the eyes of their people that the government is infallible. Police forcibly led away air ambulance pilots trying to save the life of a child.
In Canada, waiting has become the primary characteristic of their healthcare system. People wait years to get a family doctor, to be seen by specialists, to start treatments, to have surgeries. These wait times have caused people to suffer considerable anguish and pain, treatable conditions to become chronic, long-lasting, or terminal, and the deaths of between 25,456 and 63,090 Canadian women, and those numbers are just up to 2014.
There was another famous country that had a nationalized healthcare program. This country also killed children and others that were "suffering" by starvation, then injections, and then...gas. But not every country will become Nazi Germany, you say.
No. They may become worse.
Children are frequently killed in Britain by removal of life support ordered by doctors and judges not subject to appeal. And yet, have you heard much outcry from the British people? In Nazi Germany, the outcry against the actions of the national healthcare system forced the government to pretend they had stopped. But in Britain, even the crowd outside Alder Hey cannot convince the government to stop their atrocious actions.
A "free" healthcare system is essentially putting the power of your very lives into the hands of your government. History has shown time and time again that people will do anything other than lose their power. Do you really want to invite that into your country? Do you really think it will be a good idea to let the government have the power to treat or not treat sick individuals? Do you really think that will turn out well?
To all those who hope and long for a "free" healthcare system... Just look around you. Look at Canada, at Britain, at Nazi Germany, at our own VA hospitals... Is that really what you want? Do you really think putting the power of your life into the hands of the government will turn out any other way than bad? Just look at this generation's favorite fiction genre, the dystopians... This is how it starts. This is how all those nightmare scenarios start. With these decisions, these surrenders of the people, this blindness to the danger.
Government is, at its best, a necessary evil. Are they the people you really want to trust with your lives just to save people the shock of medical bills? Our healthcare system needs help, but this cannot be the answer. It must not be the answer.
If you ask for a free healthcare system, you will get a free healthcare system. Not free of costs, expenses, or unnecessary pain, but free of human dignity, the right to choose, the ability to question authority, and free of compassion and love and saved lives.
If you really, truly want a free healthcare system...
Be careful what you wish for.
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