Our healthcare system is failing. On Sept 30, 2003, the BBC noted that over 15% of the US population is uninsured, and those with insurance are seeing their coverage reduced. Even worse, companies and state governments are expected to further cut insurance to offset budget deficits. Because of the lack of healthcare, more and more Americans are putting off medical checkups and treatment. The US is the richest country in the world, and the inability of millions of Americans to see a doctor without having to take out a mortgage to pay the bill is inexcusable.

Since Europe has universal healthcare, some have argued that America should use the system they have there. However, this would be a great mistake. In Britain, the healthy get treated before the sick because more people can be treated using less time and money (and plus, it boosts doctors' success rates). Also, when world leaders are in need of medical attention (such as the former King of Jordan), it is most often this country, not Europe, that they go to because of the high medical quality (as well as volume of medical breakthroughs).

Yet a far better solution is simple. To ensure the efficiency of the market and allow for consumer choice, the Federal Government should keep hospitals and drug companies private. The only difference between the current system and this new system is that the government would pay the bill instead of an HMO. This plan has the added benefit of being capable of covering everyone everywhere. A sick person from Wisconsin vacationing in Florida could go to a hospital without having to worry about an HMO not paying the bill because he or she forgot to check which doctor was performing the emergency room surgery.

All of this sounds great, but how, you might ask, should this country go about financing a nation-wide healthcare system given the current budget deficits? The Baltimore Chronicle on Sept 4, 2002 reports that the US already spends $548.7 billion on healthcare (more than any other country in the world, including every country with universal healthcare, except Switzerland) despite leaving 40+ million Americans uninsured. The article continues by stating:

We spend over $309 billion each year on paperwork in insurance companies, hospitals and doctors' office[s]--at least half of which could be saved through national health insurance. We spend $150 billion on medications, at prices 50% higher than Canadians pay for the same drugs. By slashing bureaucracy and drug prices we could save enough to cover all of the uninsured and improve coverage for the rest of us.

Clearly, the rhetoric used to challenge the idea of universal healthcare is just that, rhetoric. The US could have affordable healthcare tomorrow without spending a penny more if only the money currently spent was used more efficiently. It's time that we stand up and demand the healthcare that we deserve and pay for already.