Monday, May 24, 2010

Social Heath Care

This is the last essay I wrote for my classical writing course. It was very fun to research and write. I hope y'all enjoy reading it. Thanks for taking the time.

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Over time, the United States Government has taken liberties to govern areas independent of their permitted jurisdiction. The Founding Fathers of America laid out the purpose of the government in the Constitution and nowhere does it includes laws which support gun control, allow the destruction of life, interfere with education, or control health care. The United States government has gone too far. Socialized government health care is slowly being introduced into our nation and is planning to further corrupt America by replacing the private sector doctors and health care with "free" health benefits, however, it would really cost people loads of money to pay for worse care than they previously received.


Social health care can take on the form of many disguises and can hardly be defined as one thing or another. What is commonly understood by the term "social heath care," however, is that the government owns nearly all forms of care such as doctors, surgeons, dentists, etc. and the people no longer have a choice of who they receive care from; it's chosen for them. That does not sound too bad though. Right? Wrong. So few people allow themselves to see the damage and harm this can do. First off, because the government commandeers all systems of medical help, they agree to pay for it all so it is potentially "free" for the citizens. That sounds good too, but the real truth, that people are not generally aware of, is that since the government would "pay," and they have to get the money somewhere, they obtain the money from the people, and how do they do that other than by raising taxes?


That's right, the government would raise taxes even higher than they are previously, which is ridiculously high because of other supposed social "improvements" we have adopted, so that there is enough money to pay the government employed health workers. In reality, citizens pay for all the health benefits after all, but worse than that, they also pay for that of other people as well. For example, if everyone pays the same amount of tax for health care, one person may be in continual good health and rarely need to visit the doctor at all, where as another person might constantly be in and out of the doctor's office for different injuries and medical issues. The healthy person then would normally only pay a little bit for their few appointments, but the other person would pay much more. With social health care, the healthy people, through taxes, will be forced to pay much more than they normally would. Some of the people who need lots of medical attention, and would be the beneficiaries of increased taxes, are the people who lead immoral lives, take drugs, have abortions and there are many people who would not support their money being used to benefit such life styles. Not all people, however, who have poor health or have medical issues fit into those three categories, but in some cases, the money paid through taxes will go to give "free" health care to those who have made foolish decisions in their lives.


As if that were not bad enough, the actual process of getting into the doctor is a hassle. Canada adapted universal health care in 1984, and 26 years later it is worse than ever. To get in to see a doctor can take any where from two to ten hours of waiting. At a hospital, a patient has to wait for a couple hours just to see a nurse, then wait anywhere up to another 8 hours, depending on how urgent the doctors feel the situation is. Eventually a real doctor will see the patient and address the issue. However, there is no guarantee that there will be a prompt solution, or even one at all. That makes sitting in a witting room for an hour sound fast! Because the employees get paid by the government and not from their clients, there is very little incentive to work hard or really care for the patients. Some doctors and nurses, who are honest say that the best way to receive beneficial help would be to go to a private doctor! So if that is the solution why does not every one go to the private doctor? Because there is a catch. A person can only get a private doctor if they have somewhere around nine hundred dollars to spare. And even if someone did have that much to spend on a private doctor, it takes anywhere from one to three years to get accepted as a patient. Because they are in such high demand, from people not wanting to use government provided health care, it is extremely difficult to even get a private physician. It is clear to see that universal health care is ineffective and futile. While the United States is trying to get rid of the independent doctors, Canada is doing just the opposite, trying to get more private care.


A common saying in the 18th century said, "the restraint of government is the true liberty and freedom of the people." Our nation has declined greatly since then and we can see the truth of it even more clearly now. The government has wormed its way in and stuck its hand where it does not belong. According to the Constitution, the government has three jobs; preserving national peace, maintaining national security, and the promotion of equal justice for everyone. How does raising already high taxes to instill a form of health care that is proven to fail, fall into either of those three categories? The truth is that our government has over stepped its rightful bounds and is intruding on the people's liberty. When looking back through history, there are many examples of times when the government should have left well enough alone, but they just couldn't. They seem to think that there should be equality for all people; old and young, poor and rich, privileged and impoverished, foreign and native. Whether through social security, health care, or education, all of which are paid by taxes, the government has tried to bridge the gap of social class which has resulted in worse situations than America was formerly comprised of.


Thomas Jefferson said, "when people fear the government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." The nation as a whole has stepped back, taken a vacation from responsibility, and apathetically watched the government head in a tyrannical direction, instead of putting on their boots and wading through the swamp of difficulty and duty in order to maintain freedom. America is training the next generation to abdicate their obligations and let the government do what they feel is best by setting an example of indifference, but that will only pull the nation into deeper trouble than that caused by socialized heath care.

1 comment:

  1. Good job, Marissa! Thanks for sharing. Americans these days really do just swallow whatever the government feeds them, whether it's junk or not. One would think there'd be some vomiting going on by now! By the way, I'm putting that quote by Jefferson in my commonplace book. :)

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