You can say that again.
People continue to disagree. That is the “current state”.
I am not going to take one side or the other of the argument but…
[quote]
[li]Health care costs have traditionally strangled businesses (this is one of the arguments against unions, too).[/li]
[li]Health care costs are likely built into many American products, which must hurt our competitiveness.[/li]
[li]Many other industrialized countries have UHC, which makes them more competitive.[/li][/quote]
This makes no sense. You think UHC is FREE? As in NO one pays for it? Businesses and individuals can pay for it directly, through insurance, through taxes, whatever. But the country is paying for their health care costs one way or another. A company in Europe may not pay for Health care directly, they just pay higher taxes directly.
[quote]
[li]The severe cost of health care for an individual or family likely causes many conditions to be ignored or treatment delayed. This might cause more disease and increasingly severe and expensive problems due to lack of preventative care.[/li][/quote]
Might be true. It might also be true that where healt care is free people waste resources by going to the doctor for lots of unnecessary things. It seems quite a few old people go to the doctor just to get some attention.
[quote]
[li]Employer-provided insurance keeps people (like my uncle) in a job they don’t want. [/li][/quote]
Probably true. I am not sure we have a duty to help people find jobs they want but it might be the case that this enhances productivity. Of course, European systems might have this in their favor but they have rigid labor laws which work in the opposite direction.
[quote]
[li]Finally, a gut-feeling argument, it seems like if health care is a for-profit model then for every $1 an American should have to spend to get adequate care, he actually has to spend more than $1 so that someone can pocket the rest. Otherwise, how do these HMOs and hospitals turn such incredible profits? [/li][/quote]
I absolutely hate this argument. You realize it could be made about any service or product and that it is the basis of communism? Get rid of the capitalist and things are cheaper! Except that it does not work that way at all. In fact, it mostly works the opposite way. We say in Spanish that “it is the eye of the owner what fattens the horse”. It is the interest of the owner which makes the company prosper and grow. And the only way for a company to prosper and grow is to provide valuable services or products. Once you do not have that incentive there is no incentive to be efficient or to provide a good service. Do you think food would be cheaper in America if the government took over all food production and removed all the profit the farmers and food production industry makes?
When you have a government-run or controlled industry you have much more bureaucracy. Much more need to cover formalities (and your own butt) than to be efficient. After all, if they need more money they can just raise taxes. So now you have a primary gateway doctor who looks at you and gives you a ticket to get an Xray and a ticket to see the trauma doctor and a ticket to see the nerve doctor and a ticket to get a blood analysis and a ticket to get a … And the whole thing takes forever.
Look at all the government contracts in Iraq. The waste, corruption and inefficiency are just staggering.
I am not arguing for or against UHC but your arguments hold little water with me. I suppose there are very good arguments in favor of UHC but yours are not some of them.