People against a universal health care believe...
why aren’t people working hard to give up their entire life savings so that others may have the same exact privileges? Why are people homeless and starving? Why do some have better food and houses than others? In demanding a universal health care, one assumes that people are willing to give up their own health benefits. Many are willing to fight for the poor, but when it hinders their personal lives, they suddenly lose their momentum. In the capitalist world we live in, it is an issue of survival. People are simply not willing to give up their hard-earned money and their benefits in order to help others. In addition, many believe that the health care system would be even less effective than it is now.
As John C. Goodman says, "Although I have always favored cost-effective medicine, I've never been a fan of managed care. But let's give the devil its due. HMOs and other managed care plans make an offer that many people find attractive - a lower premium in return for giving up the right to see any doctor or have access to any test. Is the offer reasonable? Maybe. Maybe not. But it's precisely the sort of choice people should be able to in a free market." "Given competition and consumer choice, such adjustments can work to the consumer's advantage. Let government regulate some trade-offs and not others, and consumers are likely to become worse off. The principle here is similar to the economics of the minimum wage. If employers are compelled to pay higher monetary wages, they will adjust by providing fewer fringe benefits and workplace amenities. In the complex world of health care, there's no assurance that a prohibition on one kind of trade-off will lead to higher quality or more benefits overall."
What about countries with universal health care? How are they doing it?
According to Dr. Greengold, "Patients in these nations have increasingly fled from government-controlled 7-minute physician visits; they have fled southward across the US-Canadian border, into private English insurance schemes, and even into Mexican versions of managed care."
http://www.bdt.com/pages/Peikoff.html
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/opinion/health/091700_quit.html
http://home.about.com/health/mentalhealth/library/archives/1299/blmdstress1299.htm
How managed care causes stress for U.S. doctors
The Problem(s) with Managed Care
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/issues/v160n11/ffull/ilt0612-10.html
Managed Care vs Universal Health Insurance: Whose Whips Are Gentler?
http://www.dranonymous.com/HyperNews/get/hmo.html
A forum where people can speak out against HMO’s by sharing their experiences and stories.
http://www.speakout.com/Issues/Briefs/1236/
SpeakOut.com’s site dealing with the issue of Universal Health Care: The Cure or the Disease?. Site provides a brief background of the debate, followed by an explanation of the two sides of the issue, and ends with some history and facts regarding the topic.
http://www.free-market.net/features/spotlight/9803.html
Socialized Medicine vs. Private Health Care. Contents include what the issue is, potential solutions, related links, and a discussion forum.
the issue, universal not work?
http://www.cato.org/cgi-bin/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=patientpower.html&cart_id=8432922.15488
book
http://www.ncpa.org/ba/ba103.html
From the website for the National Center for Policy Analysis, “The Myth of Universal Coverage.” An article where it is argued that universal health care is not feasible.
http://www.ncpa.org/oped/goodman/jcg12897.html
On national health care bills and PARCA in specific. Perhaps managed care is the lesser of the two evils.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101010226-99863,00.html
The Single-Doctor HMO: A small town dumps its provider for a rebel medic
by Steve Lopez
Health Care Is Not a Right
By Leonard Peikoff, Ph.D
A speech explaining why health care should not be treated as an inherent right because it is impractical and will lead to abuse. His explanations are given through metaphorical examples in life.