Arguments Against Universal Healthcare

“Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are all unalienable rights(Dec. Of Ind.). This phrase does not seem to accommodate those who our capitalistic society deems indigent. Repudiating about 44 million people’s “right” to healthcare and another 38 million people’s “right” to adequate healthcare is a hypocrisy (PBS). Realizing the discrepancy between the ethics of our country and its execution is the point everyone misses. Noticing how inhumane and callous it is to deny people something so critical to their lives, that they can not possibly get anywhere else, is the step America needs to take. A notion like Universal Healthcare should not even be a subject of debate, but when you live in a country that venerates profit instead of livelihood

To eradicate this inaccurate perspective about the superficial spending of UH, “Countries don’t usually end up with 100% coverage from the government” (Whitacker). Governments don’t usually pay for things like plastic surgeries and other elective procedures (Norway: 85%, UK: 84%, Sweden: 81%, Iceland: 80%) (Whitacker). There is obviously going to be a tax increase to accommodate government spending, but at least Americans know their taxes are potentially saving lives. When well informed people say “wouldn’t cost Americans a thing” they mean in relation to private plus public costs would decrease. The US far outpaces every country in both raw spending and spending as a percentage of GDP which is 16.9 percent compared to the netherlands at second place with 11.8 (Whitacker). Americans also spend about 36% more on drugs than the next highest paying countries (Japan and Canada) even though our life expectancy is nowhere near the longest. The number one spot belonging to Japan, and the U.S. coming in at 31. The amount we spend on private healthcare could easily be decreased, and routed towards public healthcare virtually reducing our extra costs to

An example of this would be how businesses began to detract from the Affordable Healthcare Act because it cuts into their profits (Loroya). Speaking of healthcare business, comprehending how the lives of people can be turned into business sounds like something straight out of a comic book. There are thousands of dismal stories, where people have to choose between medicine and food even purchasing drugs internationally at lower costs. It’s just an insane concept of how something so rudimentary is made so complicated and hard to get. Healthcare is a multi-billion dollar enterprise, and living in our kind of society that sounds just about right. Hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and even insurance firms all seem to be benefiting off of the misfortunes of people they are supposed to be helping. The development of our species through technology is supposed to be one of the main reasons humans thrive, but when that technology is leveraged, it just turns back into something that is no longer in reach. The very thing that is supposed to bring joy to families and even generations of people is commoditized. Why would someone sell a drug for a dollar when they could sell it for 500, and since people depend on it to live they have to buy it. This bring to mind a recent event where Martin Shkreli escalated a 62-year-old HIV drug