Understanding The Long Term Effects Of Government Health Care
There are many people who believe that Nationalized Health Care will be a good thing for the citizens of the United States
. A government run health care plan, however, may really not be all that it is cracked up to be. Let's take a closer look at Medicare as an example of what can happen when the government takes over the health care of its citizens.
Initially Medicare was designed as a health care system that was to take care of the health needs of the elderly portion of the population and help them through their medically expensive golden years. At first the Medicare system took care of the elderly and paid their medical expenses. But as in the usual government fashion, the money ran out and the people got older and sicker.
In light of the fact that the government really couldn't afford to pay for the health care needs of all their elderly they added supplemental portions to the Medicare Program to "help" pay for excessive medical expenses. This additional insurance is now paid for by those 65+ out of their meager Social Security checks. And rest assured that as time goes on their premiums for this additional benefit will go up.
Now look at the next step that the government has taken in the handling of Medicare. Medicare has just reduced the benefit that they will be paying doctors for office visits and other services. Essentially this means that doctors now don't want to take on new Medicare patients leaving these patients limited in their choices of doctors and struggling if they relocate or need to find a new health care professional.
As if this wasn't sad enough, think about how this is going to play out for those who aren't even on Medicare yet. What will their cost be? Will they even be able to find a doctor who will take this form of insurance? So when you think about the government handling health care for the entire country, just think about the splendid job that they have done with the Medicare system and perhaps this will provide you with a glimpse of what the future holds.