I love when the politicians step up to the podium, and feel it’s necessary to get our love by promising the earth moon and sky.
Granholm, in her (well played frankly) State of the State on Tuesday, announced a desire for UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE or more precisely, “Health Care for Everyone!”
Lets examine it without even going into the specific costs..
What it means, is that if the burden were split evenly amongst all citizens, a mandated health care plan for all would simply be a mandated “pay for it yourself policy.” However, because there are people involved (those unable to pay taxes, unable to work, laid off, no desire to work, below particular threshold, and any number of circumstances which affect general populations) who will not contribute into the tax pool, the burden of taxpayers who (in most cases) already provide their own healthcare will increase.. Substantially.
Now if you are of the type who says “hey soak the rich.. equal things out,” remember that you are also advocating reducing the quality of care for the same dollars spent. Dont think the cost of GOVERNMENT managing your health care dollars is free. The additional infrastructure required to monitor and control a government health care program costs.. x dollars.. If x Dollars is 15% (many of the best run charities easily hit 20% in administrative costs, and don’t think for a minute your state government is any better) then you have immediately lost 15% of the service before even getting it.
Of course government will have an answer for that. Typical of short term thinking types which seem to gravitate towards wasteful government employment, there will be a call for, and probably proposed legislative action to limit the income of certain healthcare professions ..as an effort to reduce costs and keep it a viable government function.
Once limits are placed on the amount of money a doctor, nurse or other specialized professional can earn, the incentive to enter that field becomes less. And sorry, there aren’t enough people interested in public service for the sake of “goodwill” to make up for the loss of physicians and other health care professionals who (rightfully) expect that the years they spend learning their trade is justly rewarded. When the number goes down, we ALL lose.
That is the expected outcome of “sharing the wealth,” as it relates to health care.