Society has increasingly become irresponsible in its lifestyles, greatly increasing health care costs. In this day and age of AIDS, alcoholism, drug abuse, and smoking, health care costs are escalating to an all-time high. Socialism stresses universal coverage for all people. The basic philosophy of this Marxist theory is that if everyone is well-provided for and healthy, the society will prosper greatly. The doctrine of socialism stresses help for people in need.
Socialists feel capitalism leads to poverty and unemployment due to the greed of the wealthy.
Socialists are staunch believers in universal health care because they believe all people are entitled to a healthy existence, regardless of wealth or social status. Although the capitalistic approach has an abundance of advantages, it does have a few minimal drawbacks. The health of the people of a nation dwindles due to inadequate health care procedures. The life expectancy goes down as poorer people succumb to illnesses which could have been prevented by adequate attention earlier in the illness. However, a government would have an extremely difficult time providing universal health care.