Should the U.S. Government Provide Universal Health Care?
The United States is the only nation among the 37 OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations that does not have universal health care either in practice or by constitutional right. For more on universal health care, explore the ProCon debate.
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“Health care should be a right — not a privilege — for all Americans. Today, with the beginning of the open enrollment period on HealthCare.gov, we can continue delivering on that fundamental promise….
Last year [2023], over 16 million people signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act – more Americans than ever before. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, coverage on HealthCare.gov and the state-based Marketplaces continues to be more affordable and accessible than ever, with consumers saving an average of $800 on their premiums annually. In fact, four in five customers can find quality coverage for less than $10 a month. If you don’t receive insurance through your employer, there are a range of quality, affordable coverage options available to you.
We’ve made record-breaking progress in expanding coverage and lowering health care costs for American families, saving them money and giving more Americans the peace of mind that comes with affordable health insurance. I urge everyone to visit HealthCare.gov today to renew their coverage or shop for a plan.”
-White House, “Statement from President Joe Biden on Historic 20 Million Enrollees in Affordable Care Act Health Care,” whitehouse.gov, Jan. 10, 2024
“The debate between, you know, Medicaid for all or whether there’s a public option or a gradual integration or Obamacare, whatever it is, it’s all about moving deck chairs around on the Titanic. Because it’s shifting cost from one person to another. Is it the doctors who pay the cost? Is it going to be the hospitals that pay the cost? The hmos? The pharmaceutical companies? Government? Who’s going to pay it? That’s the only debate that’s going on. And what we should be saying is how do we reduce the cost. We pay $4.3 trillion for healthcare. That dwarfs what anybody else pays in the world per capita. We’re paying two or three or four times what European nations do and we getting worse outcomes. When I was a kid we had the best healthcare system in the world. The care that Americans get when they are sick, if they get any at all, is some of the worst in the world. And we have the highest chronic disease burden on Earth. 93% of Medicare costs are chronic disease and something like 85% of of Medicaid. If we can get rid of chronic disease, we can solve our Healthcare crisis in this country, which is also the economic crisis. The second biggest cost to America is the military, which if you include National Security and Veterans Benefits, [is] 1.3 trillion a year. Well this is 4.3 trillion. More than three times what the military cost. It’s by far the biggest cost we have. But we want to reduce the budget deficit. We’ve got to start with this. It’s highly likely that in the next 20 years we’re going to face some catastrophic crisis in our country. It could be economic meltdown, it could be war, it could be environmental injuries, catastrophes, whatever. We’re America [and] we can weather any kind of storm. We have our entrepreneurial impulses; we have the greatest natural resources in the world. We’ll figure out a way around it. As long as you’re healthy, we can figure it out. But if you got a chronic disease or if you’re caring for a child with full-blown autism, that reduces your productivity to probably 10 or 20% of what it would normally be. The key is to get Americans healthy again so that we can be resilient and that we can cope with these kind of crises.”
-Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., “RFK Jr.: Who Has The Highest Chronic Disease Burden In The World?,” youtube.com, Mar. 6, 2024
“I don’t want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE. Obamacare Sucks!!!”
“The Democrats are pushing for Universal HealthCare while thousands of people are marching in the UK because their U system is going broke and not working. Dems want to greatly raise taxes for really bad and non-personal medical care. No thanks!”
“I’m a conservative on most issues but a liberal on this one. We should not hear so many stories of families ruined by healthcare expenses. We must not allow citizens with medical problems to go untreated because of financial problems or red tape…. Working out detailed plans will take time. But the goal should be clear: Our people are our greatest asset. We must take care of our own. We must have universal healthcare.”
-Donald Trump, truthsocial.com, Nov. 29, 2023
Donald Trump, twitter.com, Feb. 5, 2018
Donald Trump, The America We Deserve, 2000