There are several ways to respond to people who advocate socialized medicine or single-payer health care in the United States. You can start at fundamentals by point out that health care is not a right, and that governmnt-controlled health care violates the rights of physicians and patients. You can point out that such a system is effectively compulsory charity, which is immoral and impractical. Or you can point out that having “coverage” does not guarantee medical care, and that where government supposedly guarantee “universal” health care, people die waiting.
Or you can do what the Cato Institute‘s Michael Cannon has so eloquently done: Explain that the United States already has socialized medicine. Check out his article here.
I love this article, but there a few points I’d like to add to the argument:
While Cannon mentions how government forces us to pay for other people’s health care through government programs, he does not mention insurance regulations that do this covertly: community rating and mandated benefits.
Community rating forbids insurers from risk-rating their premiums, that is, setting their premiums according to how likely it is that the insurance applicant will consume medical care. Hence, low-risk customers end up paying higher than they otherwise would, and hence subsidize higher risks. As I’ve mentioned before, supporters of community rating should argue honestly for it by pointing out that it’s a forced subsidy. (Community rating has also increased the number of uninsured.)
Mandated benefits force people to buy insurance loaded up with coverages many of us do not need. For example, Colorado law compels widowed wives to pay higher premiums for prostate screening, maternity, and marital therapy. The Congressional Budget Office reports that such mandated benefits increase premiums by at least six percent [p. 16, 20], and possibly more than ten. For example, the Boston Globe reported that
12 cents of every $1 paid for health insurance in Massachusetts goes toward 26 state-mandated benefits, from maternity and mental healthcare to infertility and diabetes services.
Like community rating, such mandates increase the number of uninsured.
Speaking of Massachusetts, the compulsory insurance law is effectively socialized medicine in disguise. Under socialized medicine, you’re forced to pay taxes for your government-run insurance plan defined by politicians and government employees. In Massachusetts, you’re forced to buy insurance that meets the stiff regulations and controls defined by politicians and government employees. Little difference, really. As I’ve written before, with Massachusetts-style compulsory insurance, “insurance companies are effectively government contractors for politically-defined insurance.”
