A lot of people have been arguing against President Barack Obama's healthcare ideas, but few seem to understand the full concept behind it. Instead of debating, many critics simply state, "No, I'm a conservative." Texas A&M being a conservative university, I assumed the responsibility to play devil's advocate and challenge others.
First off, socialized medicine should not be viewed as a socialist movement. Instead of viewing healthcare as a business, helping the sick should be viewed as a public works program. Our police, fire department and public schools are paid through taxes, why is healthcare reform viewed as a socialist boogeyman?
In reality, we as a government do not have the necessary funds to actually enable a law to give everyone free healthcare. However, there are other possible solutions.
Obama proposed a "price out" option in his healthcare concept, which would essentially regulate the funds and insurance companies, making rates more affordable and less discriminatory.
Put yourself in someone else's shoes. Imagine having two or so brothers and sisters all with health problems, and the insurance company denies you coverage because there is too much liability. Would you still have the same mindset?
Turn on the news, or even watch Michael Moore's "Sicko" with an open mind, and think of the 50 million people dependant on uninsured healthcare. Google "Blue Cross," or "Aetna" and watch all the hits they get, half of which are about lawsuits and profit.
These companies have proven they only insure people where they see profit, not ones who actually need it. The whole thing is a scam, just to get more money and profit.
This is where Obama's "price out" option comes in to play, to alleviate a lot of the discriminatory problems that have occurred. Healthcare will be more closely monitored by the government, to ensure that everyone receives the treatment they need. ?
Now I know, people raise their hands up and scream, "Government control is terrible." However, earlier this decade, millions of investors, employees and members of the global society fell victim to devastating corporate fraud schemes. The shady business dealings of Enron and Worldcom resulted in the downfall of many large corporations and one of the Big Five accounting firms. With the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the private accounting industry was turned into a federally regulated one to more closely regulate companies and their internal controls.
These measures caused an uproar by accounting firms and corporations, with executives screaming about costs and a lost competitive edge over foreign markets. America needs to take a lesson on healthcare from the global marketplace, and realize that the cost of allowing the uninsured to rack up medical bills is much less than the cost of preventing people from being uninsured. ?
If the healthcare system is funded by this idea, and controlled by the government, it will create a supply and demand competition. Companies would be essentially forced to be more efficient and cost effective, which will help the consumers get the best "bang for your buck."?
I'm not saying that total universal health care is what we need. The country would lose a lot of great doctors by giving them less pay and not showing the gratitude they really deserve.
However, Canada, the United Kingdom and many other countries who have adopted some form of socialized medicine seem to be doing great. Their doctors still make good money, and their state of the art systems have yet to fail. The only downfall is the potential and probability of a long wait.
To me, though, that is an acceptable trade-off. Helping the sick should be a moral obligation.
Recently, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has ranked the top 10 countries to live, with the best human index. Among these were Norway, Australia and Sweden. The U.S. was ranked 13. Ironically, all of the top 10 countries have a universal healthcare form of some type.
The United States has room to improve. What if we had a system that allows a higher number of people to get healthcare, as well as having cheaper healthcare rates? Not only would we be helping others, but we would save money too.
Cole Allen is a junior political science major.
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