Health care for all might not be the best system

By Sarah Schuch

Edited by Amanda Crabtree, Kelly Morse and Meredith Mayberry

Government run health care will become a hot topic of discussion next week at Central Michigan University. Is it right for the United States?

20/20 investigative reporter John Stossel will be visiting CMU March 19 to give a speech “Socialized Medicine Stinks” in Warriner Hall’s Plachta Auditorium.

Isaac Morehouse, director for Students for a Free Economy, said socialized medicine refers to any health care system that is completely run by the government. The application of the system meant a lot of government regulations and restrictions.

“There are a lot of problems with health care in the U.S.,” Morehouse said. “The answer is not more government but less government.”

Chase Canning, Herrig sophomore and Campus Conservatives member, socialized health care has the benefit of everyone having health care. But it can be deceiving, he said.

“I think if you tell anyone they get something for free they want it,” Morehouse said.

However, there is a cost. The cost is the quality, Morehouse said.

Canning said it costs taxpayers so much and eliminates the private health care industry. It would take away the incentive for people to become doctors because they wouldn’t be making as much working for the government.

“It would cost America so much more than it would help,” he said.

Dennis Lennox, Topinabee junior, said some prefer socialized medicine because it favors a system of institution where the responsibility doesn't fall on the consumer but the state.

Governments with socialized medicine give patients a list of doctors they can see, Lennox said.

"I think each person should look out for themselves," Lennox said. "I don't want (my health care) to be decided on the whim of the government."

Morehouse said there are solutions which Stossel will address that are beneficial to the U.S. but move away from socialized medicine. One positive solution would be to get rid of a lot of government mandates on insurance companies.

Another draw back of “free” health care for all is that with so many people getting health care eventually the government has to start rationing what people can and cannot get. The cost is quality, Morehouse said.

In Canada where there is socialized health care individuals can be put on a waiting list for several months for something like a MRI, CAT scan or surgery, Morehouse said.

“People actually die on waiting lists,” he said.

In the “20/20” special “Sick in America: Whose Body Is It, anyway?” hosted by Stossel, he looks at the insurance industries, the need for competition to create better care and experiments aimed at combining lower costs with better medicine.

Morehouse encourages everyone to attend Stossel’s speech even if they don’t agree with what he has to say.

“(Stossel’s) good at digging up facts,” he said. “They might learn something new.”