Should the Government Provide Health Care? Research Paper Example

In America, healthcare has primarily been provided by the private sector with minimum government intervention which is quite a contrast to many other developed countries and even developing ones like Cuba. If we analyze the priorities of the President Obama Administration, government-mandated healthcare system, usually called Obamacare, has arguably been the administration’s greatest priority in terms of domestic issues. Some even speculate President Obama may want his legacy to be defined by Obamacare more than anything else because the issue of universal healthcare system has been unsuccessfully tackled by some former U.S. Presidents as well. There are both supporters and critics of Obamacare which are usually divided on ideological lines. A careful analysis of the benefits of Obamacare as well as evidence from the rest of the world should convince Americans that the benefits of Obamacare will far outweigh the costs, both in economic and social terms.

U.S. Government should provide healthcare because healthcare is a basic human right, just as education, food, and housing are. The U.S. Government plays a major role in the provision of educational services in the country, especially until high school and similarly, there are government programs such as food stamps and low-cost housing to take care of those at the lowest levels of economic hierarchy. Healthcare is no different than these basic rights of access to education, food, and housing, thus, the government has an ethical obligation to ensure no one is denied access to healthcare just because he/she cannot afford it. The millions of Americans without health insurance remind us that the government has failed to provide one of the basic rights to many of its citizens and it is even more of an embarrassment given the fact that it has happened in the largest economy in the world.

The U.S. Government should also provide healthcare because it will help promote more responsible attitudes towards healthcare in the U.S. The healthcare plan will add millions of Americans to the insurance plan without which healthcare costs can be quite high. Being in the plan will increase the probability of an average American going for regular medical checkups which may help identify potential healthcare problems and treat them in a timely fashion. This will also help reduce the overall healthcare costs because costs of treatment at later stages of diseases are usually quite higher than costs of early detection and treatment. In addition, an average American will also be less likely to ignore minor symptoms of potential health issues if he/she has an insurance plan. Costs are important variables in decisions made by an average person and those with limited means are even more sensitive to financial aspects of the decisions. If one knows his/her insurance plan will cover health checkup, he/she is more likely to adopt responsible attitudes towards his/her health.

The U.S. Government should also provide healthcare because it will put more power in the hands of American people as opposed to healthcare providers who have historically enjoyed quite high negotiating power. Under Obamacare, Americans under 19 years of age will not be denied healthcare insurance coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Americans will also be able to use their parents’ plan until the age of 26. Insurance providers will also have greater accountability towards those whose healthcare payments may have been denied. The U.S. Government healthcare plan will also eliminate lifetime limits on most benefits which is especially important because Americans are living longer, like the rest of the world. Insurance companies will also have reduced pricing power which has traditionally contributed towards soaring healthcare costs as they will have to justify unreasonable rate increases (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services).

The U.S. Government should also provide healthcare insurance because the private sector experiment has mostly failed when it comes to healthcare provision. It is true that private sector is more efficient than the public sector but for that to happen, certain conditions need to exist such as competition, accountability, and free flow of information. If we analyze the healthcare sector, it has only been private in name only which explains the operational inefficiencies as well as soaring healthcare costs over the years. An article in Harvard Business Review took a detailed look at the U.S. healthcare system and explained why healthcare system has mostly been a failure in the U.S despite less government intervention as compared to other countries. The article, co-authored by legendary Michael Porter, claimed that physicians have little or no accountability for quality of healthcare they provide, physicians are protected from competition from other physicians, patients have access to few or inadequate information sources, and the industry players such as insurance providers engage in collusive behavior (Porter and Teisberg). Thus, it is not a surprise why the healthcare system in our neighboring Canada is so much more efficient than ours. A study done on American and Canadian healthcare systems found that per capita insurance overhead in the U.S. was nearly five times the Canadian rate at $259 as opposed to Canada’s $49 in 1999. Per capita hospital administration cost was nearly three times the Canadian rate in the U.S. at $315 as opposed to Canada’s $103 during the same period (Rashford). The U.S. Government healthcare plan will introduce efficiencies because it will increase competition as well as accountability levels. In addition, the insurance providers will also have tougher negotiator in the form of U.S. Government.

One of the major assertions by the critics of the Obamacare is that it is socialist in nature which could not have been more misguiding. Socialism is an economic system in which th government owns and controls means of production (Heilbroner). Obamacare is not government taking over the operations of healthcare providers including insurance companies but only imposing greater controls and monitoring systems to improve consumer rights and introduce greater competition and accountability. In other words, the healthcare system has primarily existed as a private sector in name only and the government is now introducing conditions that make it a private sector in essence also. The private sector will now have less pricing power and will be forced to improve operations and quality of service. If the critics believe government intervention in any form is socialism, then not only the U.S. but every other country on the planet has always been socialist. The U.S. Government plays more role in the provision of education, at least until high school which should also count as socialism by the same measure. Similarly, Medicaid and Medicare Systems should also be count as socialism. U.K., Canada, and Australia which we consider free market systems, should also be count as socialism because it not anything else, all these three countries have universal healthcare system, not unlike the one being championed by President Obama’s Administration.

It is clear that U.S. Government healthcare system will be good for the country because it will introduce greater competition and accountability among healthcare industry players and improve patients’ rights. It will also introduce millions of Americans to the healthcare insurance plans and promote healthier healthcare habits among them. The critics dismiss Obamacare as socialism but by the same criteria, free education and low-cost housing should also be considered socialism. Obamacare is not socialism but actually an attempt to improve the healthcare industry that has been quite inefficient historically as evident by soaring healthcare costs in the U.S. as compared to other developed countries.

Works Cited

Heilbroner, Robert. Socialism. 30 April 2014. Web.

Porter, Michael E. and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg. “Redefining Competition in Healthcare.” Harvard Business Review June 2004: 65-76. Print.

Rashford, Marleise. “A Universal Healthcare System: Is It Right for the United States?” Nursing Forum January-March 2007: 3-11. Print

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. About the Law. 30 April 2014. Web.