3 REASONS I OPPOSE SINGLE-PAYER.
Separation of Healthcare & State.
The United States has long been a leader in healthcare innovation and quality. However, proposals to institute a single-payer healthcare system in the country pose serious risks that threaten to undermine the very strengths of American medicine.
Here are three reasons why the U.S. should reject single-payer and instead focus on alternative reforms.
1. The US is a business.
For all its challenges, the U.S. healthcare system is a world leader in cutting-edge treatments, research, and quality care that attracts patients from around the globe.
With $6-8 trillion in planned international medical spending, the U.S. is uniquely positioned to capture a significant market share and cement its role as a global healthcare destination.
In fact, when comparing US private practice prices to single-payer government costs, the US of A is significantly lower priced. Compare this to the often cited studies of health systems versus single-payer governments.
By leveraging advantages through focused policy, the U.S. could pay down national debt, attract significant capital inflows, train and create millions of highly paid jobs, and export its capabilities to help international patients.
By contrast, single-payer healthcare would squander the greatest opportunity in a hundred years, cede ground to rising competitors, and continue to make healthcare more expensive.
2. Erosion of Individual Freedoms.
Concentrating total control over healthcare access and decision-making in the hands of the federal government is a chilling prospect for individual liberty.
A single-payer system would empower Washington bureaucrats to withhold medical care from citizens based on political ideology or other arbitrary factors.
Given the U.S. government's mixed historical record on matters like the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Agent Orange, and the Iraq WMD fiasco, entrusting it with such incredible power over the lives of Americans would be a dangerous mistake.
Moving to a transparent system, free of regulatory capture, increases choices and decreases prices and premiums, which are critical to preserving freedoms.
3. Stifling of Healthcare Innovation
A government takeover of the healthcare system is equivalent to imprisoning the brilliant physicians, nurses, and innovators who drive American medical progress.
If you think physicians and nurses working for administrators and MBAs are bad, they are; wait until they are reduced to state functionaries.
Price controls, utilization restrictions, and the dead hand of central planning would inevitably slow the pace of therapeutic advances.
Ultimately, patients would suffer as American healthcare innovation atrophied over time.
In conclusion, single-payer healthcare is misguided. Single-payer would sabotage American leadership in medicine, deprive individuals of core freedoms, and grind down the engine of innovation that makes the U.S. system the envy of the world.
The path forward is based on transparent prices (opposed), more medical facilities (illegal), physician ownership of hospitals (also illegal), competitive markets, and proper incentives, not a government monopoly.
By rejecting single-payer, the U.S. can best enhance the health of its subjects, I mean citizens, while unlocking the potential of its medical prowess on the global stage.
-Rojas out.