| | President’s Message: Questions to Consider Regarding Universal Health Care | |
By Sue Blevins
With the number of uninsured Americans increasing, universal health care is again at the front of the national health policy debate. But as the nation prepares to choose its path, it is important to ask questions that often get ignored, but that affect each citizen personally.
Here are a few questions that our policymakers and opinion makers should consider:
- How does universal health care work in other countries? Do citizens have the freedom to choose their health-care providers and treatments without delays, rationing, or coercion?
- Do citizens really want to hand over their freedom to make personal health-care decisions to a collective organization (i.e., a national insurance program)?
- Should all citizens have to give up their freedom to contract privately for health care and maintain health privacy in order to serve national interests?
- At what point do individual rights end and public concerns begin?
- Is there a way to help cover those who can’t afford health insurance while allowing others to maintain their private insurance and confidentiality?
The debate over universal health care is not simply about raising taxes to cover the uninsured. Creating a universal health-care system in the United States would have serious implications for each citizen’s freedom to choose his or her own health care and to maintain confidential relationships. We can’t afford to ignore the effect of universal health care on these freedoms.
Sue A. Blevins is founder and president of the Institute for Health Freedom in Washington, D.C.