The United States’ healthcare system is largely different from most other Western nations.
Countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Belgium and even Canada have more socialized healthcare systems while the U.S. has a more capitalist system. The socialized system that these nations use garners much praise as medical bills and bankruptcy are exceedingly rare or non-existent. In contrast, medical bankruptcy is the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States, according to Motley Fool, LLC.
Since this is the reality of the current state of healthcare in the U.S., it begs the question of why the world’s largest current superpower has this problem while neighboring Canada, does not.
Why doesn’t the U.S. have a universal healthcare system akin to the ones seen in Canada and Western Europe? These other countries have smaller and more centralized populations that make a socialistic system like theirs easier to employ, but there is a way to put in place a universal healthcare system in the U.S.
The key to employing a single-payer system is getting the U.S. on track with other civilized nations by trade, as said by Charles Peralo of BeingLibertarian.com. It is important to understand that individuals have an inherent right over their own bodies. This right cannot be violated. Therefore, individuals should have a right to choose whatever form of medical care that they deem fit for themselves.
According to WebMD, it is illegal to re-import into the U.S. drugs that have been exported from the country. People should have the right and ability to import drugs or doctors from other nations for themselves if they deem fit. This would drop prices of all kinds of medicine and medical care naturally as the U.S. would have to compete with other nations.
Competition in the marketplace is normally a good thing for the consumer. The government, in a way, curtails this, as they decide who can open up medical facilities and where. The process of opening up a medical facility is costly and very time-consuming, which makes the healthcare industry favor larger companies. People should still have to pass guidelines and tests, of course, but making it easier for new doctors to enter the market adds more competition and leads to more innovation.
With these principles in place, a single-payer system in the U.S. could possibly work. The United States should not just copy and paste the systems of other nations, as America is much different than these countries. Putting the U.S. in the global healthcare market would make for a cheaper healthcare system.
