Welcome to America- the freest and best nation in the world- where the grass is green, the skies are blue, and healthcare will cost you an arm and a leg. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, regardless of whether or not you think America really is the Land of the Free, there can be absolutely no doubt that America is light years behind many other industrialized nations in terms of providing affordable healthcare for its citizens. But don’t despair, there is, in fact, a way to dig us out of this ditch- a public option healthcare plan. A public option plan is one in which the federal government would provide its citizens with insurance that they can use to purchase healthcare, whether through a self-sustaining public insurance, premiums subsidized via taxes, or another method. And why, you ask, is public option health care the only option for America? I’ll tell you why.
46.3 million Americans were uninsured in 2008. That’s 600,000 more than in 2007, and the numbers are still rising today. These people are at the mercy of fate, and the most they can do is hope that they won’t get sick or have a medical emergency. This does not always work out for the best, and it sometimes ends in tragedy. Just take the story of Leslie from North Carolina. Last year, Leslie’s young son became very sick. Because his son was not insured, it was not found that he had cancer until he was already in renal failure. A short time later, Leslie’s son became one of the 30,000 people who died last year merely because they did not have insurance. When the system only cares about those who have enough money, sad stories like this are all too common, but under a public option plan, needless deaths can be prevented because everyone can afford health insurance.
So how would healthcare be any more affordable under a public option plan than it is now? First of all, because the federal government is a huge organization and a large percentage of the American people would be taking part in the public option, there would be a decrease in the pricing of health care needs. Also, as a large organization, the government would have some real clout to create competition with private insurers and to encourage them to lower their prices, making healthcare more affordable for all Americans, no matter whether they choose public or private insurance. Whereas the goal of private insurers is to make a profit, the government is not-for-profit, and thus, with a public option plan, the healthcare provider’s focus could shift from making money to providing quality healthcare for its recipients.
Many Americans fear that public option healthcare is a socialist scheme that, if enacted, will lead America one step closer to that evil from which there is no return: communism. How far must one go into the Axis of Evil to find a nation with affordable, “socialist” healthcare? Look no further than Britain or France, where everyone can afford to get the medical care they need. In France, whose healthcare system ranked first on a list of best healthcare systems, patients at a hospital are charged for most visits, however they are reimbursed after the visit with anywhere from 75-85% of what they spent. (The United States placed 37th on the same list, right between Costa Rica and Slovenia.) Talk to a Canadian and they will tell you all about their publicly funded healthcare system, which, according to a 2008 survey by the Strategic Counsel, 91% of Canadians were said to prefer to that of the U.S. So have these nations devolved into communist hellholes? The statistics show that these nations have improved because of their healthcare systems and prove Americans’ fears to be irrational and not grounded in fact.
Since doctors could receive lower reimbursements under a public option plan, many Americans are afraid that they would reject public option patients in favor of those using private insurance. If the public option system works the way it is intended to, however, this would not be the case, because private insurers would lower their prices to match public option prices, thus leveling the playing field and ensuring that doctors would not prefer any patient to the other based on their healthcare method.
Finally, it is important to realize that the success of the public option system rests in the hands of you, the youth of America, because, for it to succeed, everyone, yes, everyone, needs to purchase some sort of coverage, not just the old and sickly but also the young and healthy. Young Americans may complain that they don’t really need it, but, in order for the cost of healthcare to go down, young people must put money into the system so that the strain on the population as a whole is reduced. This way, by the time that today’s youth have become seniors, they will be able to reap the benefits of lower healthcare costs. The opportunity for a better America is waiting. The choice is up to you.
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