America needs universal health care
15 million Americans live without proper medical coverage due to high insurance premiums that universal health care would fix
October 24, 2018
As more people are living longer due to new medical advancements, there are still people who will never be able to see these benefits. Universal health care is the best way to make sure that everyone receives the coverage they need and save millions of lives. It is Congress’s job to fix the issues currently plaguing the system by instituting u
niversal health care. Currently, the health care system in America is flawed, with high insurance premiums that only let a select few receive proper coverage. Based on a study from the Center for Disease Control, more than three hundred and sixty thousand Americans die from preventable diseases every year. Those deaths makeup around 14 percent of total deaths in America.
According to the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, 12.2 percent or around 15 million Americans live without health insurance and that number is only rising. Although Obamacare helped to lower insurance premiums, premiums are still too high. A study conducted by CVS Health found that 73 percent of Americans think that health care needs reform which I completely agree with. Health care has always been a politically divisive issue, but both sides of the aisle can agree that the current system is flawed, leading many Americans to look for a solution. With many world superpowers instituting universal health care, a study by PBS found that 62 percent of Americans think universal health care would be the best course of action. Although health care reforms have been in Congress lately they have been to cut coverage not to save lives.
According to U.S. News and World Report, major health care repeals have been controversial since 1992. Sadly, even when health care reforms have been passed, those reforms have had to make major concessions on other issues, sometimes negating any gains that the reform would have made. The only fix for our health care system is to pass universal health care.
Universal health care is the best way to save millions of lives every year. Any other options, such as the current medicare and medicaid plans leave people uncovered and have significant drawbacks. If 73 percent of Americans truly care about health care reform, the best way to encourage that reform is with a vote. Health care reform has sadly become a political issue and the only way to truly help the problem and save lives is to vote for people who care about solving the issue.
Noah Hookstra • Nov 9, 2018 at 2:05 pm
Tanner does a good job of qualifying the discussion in the beginning of the opinion. Explaining that many Americans don’t get the care that they need, and that most of america supports universal healthcare. However Mr.Smith does not sufficiently explain what universal healthcare would be like. Would it simply be catastrophe care that only covers extreme medical needs and not things like cancer or asthma? What would the subside range look like? Would it even have subsides? Would the private market get destroyed like in Canada, or would it an amalgamation of a healthcare system like German system? While Mr.smith is not a law maker and is not beholden to these minutia, he dramatically simplifies the conversion. So much so that I fear this article does more harm than good. If he does know about the actual issues that matter in the healthcare debate he doesn’t address them in a sufficient manner. The opinion is enlightening in one way: what Tanner Smith “thinks” about healthcare. But the why this was published at all was beyond me. It provides no real benefit to the public. I believe that there is a good version of this to be written but that this is not it.