Paper Example on Pros and Cons of National Health Insurance

Introduction

The National Health Insurance in the United States is any plan that helps the citizens to pay for their medical bills. The current national health insurance policy does this by paying part of the expenses that the citizens face when being treated (Deborah, 2018). The plan uses either private or public insurance companies to offer the financial support. The government depends on taxes that the citizens pay to compensate them whenever they have medical expenses.

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There have been several attempts to change the current policy in the country to a situation where the government takes full responsibility for the expenses of the citizens' medical care. This is known as the Single-payer policy. In this situation, the government pays for all the medical expenses of its citizens. The bills have become incessant since 2001 which has made it a highly sensitive topic with people differing in the views of how the government should insure its citizens. An example of such a bill is HR676 bill which was also known as the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act (Friedman, 2013).

Pros and Cons

The first advantage that would be experienced by citizens is that they would not have to worry about paying for medical expenses since the government would offer free treatment to all citizens. The government would not take any considerations such as whether the citizen is employed or not. This advantage would, however, come with great responsibility on the government side. The government insures the citizens by using the tax money that they pay. Implementation of the policy would mean that the citizens will have to increase their total tax duty to support free medical care. The tax will then be used to pay health care providers and buy all the necessities needed in hospitals (Friedman, 2013).

In addition to that, the policy will abolish any insurance companies that offer public insurance. In doing this, the government will eliminate the use of overly expensive drugs among other factors that insurance companies use to gain maximum profit. While this act is helpful, it would mean that the government would lose some of the significant sources of tax. The private firms pay a considerable amount of income tax to the government depending on the money they make. Reducing their income would mean cutting the net tax that they pay to the government.

Furthermore, the policy does not make considerations such as whether the person is working or not. It only requires one to be a citizen to apply for insurance. In doing this, the policy caters even for the poor and unemployed in the country which is a significant advantage. However, the plan makes it hard for those who work as they have to bear the burden of the others who do not work and are treated in a way that is similar to them. The taxpayers will feel discriminated against by the policy and may not see the benefits it has. The working population may choose to remain in support of the current healthcare insurance policy.

Finally, the policy does not allow the patients to make choices on medical treatment. The policy states that the people have a similar treatment for all the patients who are covered by the plan. This will act as a means to end social classes among other discriminative practices. The lack of choice may, however, cause dissatisfaction of the citizens who think that they deserve better treatment and some of them may even turn to private insurance companies as it is in Canada.

Answers to Rotary Questions

The bill does not support that the old people be denied care so that they may die quickly since the bill proposes that all the people be treated in a manner that is equal to all the members of the policy. The law supports the needs of all people as long as they are citizens in the country.

The National Healthcare policy may lead to the delay of healthcare services to the people since the government may not be able to address all the needs of all citizens. This is evident in Canada where the people seek help from other insurance agencies. The population is too large for the United States to fund for their medical care and this would lead to more deaths.

The single payer policy will lead to the loss of liberty to choose the doctor to attend to one as the government would fund the treatment of all citizens in equal ways. This leads to equality among people of all social classes. The decision may however lead to lack of contentment to certain groups of people who think that they deserve better medical care compared to their fellow citizens.

The policy to cater for all the citizens would not solve the problem about uninsured people who could find jobs. This is because the system favors the growth of uninsured people by catering to all their needs even if they do not work. The government would run the whole of the medical sector which means it would make all the decisions.

References

Deborah, L. (2018). 13.4 Problems of Health Care in the United States | Social Problems: Continuity and Change. Retrieved from http://open.lib.umn.edu/socialproblems/chapter/13-4-problems-of-health-care-in-the-united-states/

Friedman, G. (2013). Funding HR 676: The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act How we can afford a national single-payer health plan. Retrieved February 10, 2015.

Cutler, D. M., & Johnson, R. (2004). The birth and growth of the social insurance state: Explaining old age and medical insurance across countries. Public Choice, 120(1-2), 87-121.