Universal Health Care

Sorry I had to forfeit. I forgot to post my arguments on time \\\ Some 47 million U.S. residents have no health insurance, and the numbers keep growing. Because employers increasingly are moving in the direction of providing Wal-Mart-style health coverage by shifting health care costs to employees, America's workers struggle to pay higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments€"if they can afford such coverage at all. Of the 47 million Americans without health insurance, 8.7 million are children. If we have Universal Health care, we will be insuring the lives of 8.7 million children. Not 8.7 million "careless smokers"./// You should get your facts right. What Universal Health care does (or at least the one proposed in America) is it requires people to buy health insurance. It doesn't give it to them for free. You have to pay it either directly or through taxes. The public option might be cheaper, but it still costs money, which some people don't have. "First of all, since YOU are the instigator, you have the burden of proof. You have provided only one source and NO proof and/or examples. You have not state WHAT universal health care system we are debating and when it will be implemented. Therefore this point is invalid. Bye the way voters, debatapedia is the wikipedia of debate, it can be edited by anyone, anywhere, anytime. So if you trust this source, that's your problem." First of all, that is incorrect spelling of by. Second, you have stated only one source, which is pro-healthcare.com. When I visited the website, I saw nothing but a private insurance company's website. My own arguments. 1. Its a socialized medicine. a. Lenin said, "Medicine is the keystone in the arch of socialism." The government should not be in control of medicine and should generally not be in too many features of our lives. It is both inefficient and an intrusion on our fundamental rights. b. "Medical resources are rationed in socialized systems so that some people are either denied care or have to wait for it. If a person is "rationed out" of the public health care service (perhaps because the treatment is not considered effective or cost effective enough to warrant intervention) they will be able seek alternative treatment in the private sector. If they cannot afford private care, they may have to go without." c. Government will involve itself in decisions between doctors and patients under a single-payer system. d. We'll be depending too much on the government. What if the government collapses or becomes corrupt? We can't always depend on the government. The government should depend on us. 2. Unfair to physicians a. Does a physician not have the free right of association and contract with patients? Why would physicians be forced to perform free or government-set prices for their labor? Why shouldn't they be able to charge market value for their services? b. Universal health care would deprive physicians of this freedom to charge market-value by imposing government pricing on their services, almost certainly at a discounted rate. c. It is important to recognize that many private physicians have oriented their private practices around a certain level of cash-flow. They have rented office space at a certain level, taken out mortgages at a certain level, and sent their kids to private schools all on the assumption that their existing cash-flow in their private practices would continue into the future. d. It is unfair to suddenly and dramatically curtail this cash-flow and force physicians to re-adjust their lives accordingly. For some, this will be impossible or unbearable. e. With fewer financial incentives, fewer individuals would decide to become physicians in the first place. Talent would be lost from the industry and the quality of doctors and health care would fall. f. Because more people seek care, doctors in a universal health care environment often are over-loaded. Hoping to meet their patients needs, they work over-time. Yet, by doing this, they often burn out and leave their practice early, exacerbating the problem even further. 3. Provides inferior care a. The markets are better at providing quality; same with health care. The markets and competition generally help produce higher quality goods for the least money (the highest value). The same applies to health care. b.Government-mandated procedures would reduce doctor flexibility/quality c. From the article, should the government provide free health care to all Americans, balanced politics.orgd. "Government-mandated procedures will likely reduce doctor flexibility and lead to poor patient care. When government controls things, politics always seep into the decision-making. Steps will have to be taken to keep costs under control. Rules will be put in place as to when doctors can perform certain expensive tests or when drugs can be given. Insurance companies are already tying the hands of doctors somewhat. Government influence will only make things worse, leading to decreased doctor flexibility and poor patient care." e. According to Reuters in London, one in 10 patients admitted to National Health Service hospitals in Britain is unintentionally harmed and almost a million safety incidents, more than 2,000 of which were fatal, were recorded last year, according to a report on July 6, 2006. Such figures were "terrifying enough", the report by parliament's public accounts committee said, but the reality may be worse because of what it called "substantial under-reporting" of serious incidents and deaths in the NHS f.Most of what determines length and quality of life (excluding human issues such as traffic accidents, homicides...) is genetics and life style choices (eating/exercise). Early detection will certainly weigh heavily on life expectancy for certain diseases, but no amount of "prevention" will stop cancer if you genes are highly susceptible. As most people know, most doctor's visits end with "take this and call me if it doesn't get better" which should hardly be seen as "preventative" of anything. 4. Slows down innovation a. The primary cause of this is a reduction in economic incentives for innovation. In general, the only way that people will take the time, energy, and risks involved with innovation is if there are substantial returns for their investment. This notion underpins the markets and capitalism generally, but is undermined by universal health care. Universal health care, therefore, b. Under investment in single-payer system leads to capacity shortages A lack of willingness to invest in expensive technology leads to shortages in areas such as MRI scanning. Some would argue that only the price mechanism in free market health care can allocate resources efficiently and that political pressure often leads to shortages in socialized systems. 5. delays a. Frequent cancellations are a feature of universal health care systems. A function of "rationing", doctors sometimes have to cancel visits in a single-payer system.Single-payer, universal health care results in long waits for patients Canada is a prime example of this. Many people find themselves waiting for long periods for care in Canada, and sometimes come to the United States to receive faster and higher quality care. b. John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, wrote, "rationing by waiting is pervasive, putting patients at risk and keeping them in pain." c. Frequent cancellations are a feature of universal health care systems. A function of "rationing", doctors sometimes have to cancel visits in a single-payer system. Sources:"Against Universal Coverage". National Review Online. June 21, 2007 Michael Tanner and Michael Cannon, of the CATO institute. "Universal healthcare's dirty little secrets". Los Angeles Times. April 5th, 2007 Brian Schwartz. "Universal Health Care Is the Wrong Prescription". The Heartland Institute. June 1, 2008 Froma Harrop. "Canada's the wro