For years, the issue of universe health care has plagued the populous, but not in the way commonly thought. Ever since filmmaker Michael Moore declared the American health care system to be slightly better than the Cuban system, there has been a call to do something to repair the broken American system. Proponents of universal health care often declare it would lead to excellent care and total coverage of the American people. However, as history has demonstrated, the intervention of governments into free markets leads to nothing but a road to serfdom.
Nothing is free, so who pays for universal health care? The answer seems obvious: the government. However, the government has three main sources of income: printing money, issuing bonds and federal taxes. While two of these do not seem to take money from your pocket, looking deeper reveals that each income reduces the buying power of the dollar.
Universal health care, no matter how it's financed, takes money from hard working Americans. It’s true that insurance already costs an exuberant amount, but the answer is less government intervention. History has shown that as free-markets grow, the prosperity of a nation’s citizens goes up and prices go down. On the contrary, with more government intervention comes higher prices. As such, the price of health care increases with government interference.
Furthermore, other governmental attempts at a universal health care for a specific group have failed. For example, the Veterans Affairs (VA) scandal. The quality of health care given to our veterans, men that fought for our freedom, was deplorable. Veterans died waiting for their care as corruption filled the organization. Even in countries where health care is universal, the quality and wait times remain long. For example, the applauded health care system of Canada has atrocious wait times. According to the Fraser Institute, Canada has the longest wait times of all studied countries.
The issue of health care continues to face our society as a challenge that must be overcome. Contrary to many opinions, the answer is not more intervention by the government but less.