Universal Health Care

Essay by laplandiaUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, July 2006

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Since the subject of universal healthcare became the rally point for big government ideologues during the Clinton administration, the subject has been alternately pushed onto the media front pages and then allowed to suffer from lack of adequate medical attention required to keep it alive. While the idea resounds in the desires of the American public, the reality of how to fund such an expansion of government entitlement programs remains elusive. The idea sounds great to the country's two largest two sectors of growing population which will be the chief beneficiaries. The aging baby boomer generation is approaching retirement and beyond, and a universal healthcare system will cater to their rising health care costs. This generation is one of the largest in the country, and offering them the opportunity to "opt out" of paying for coming health care expenses is a significant personal benefit. The other sector of the US population which is growing at a rapid rate is the poor, including underemployed, and legal and illegal immigrants.

Although this group pays little in taxes and contributes little to the overall real economic progress of the country, politicians continue to cater to class envy by declaring that the 'rich' have health care coverage, why shouldn't those at the lower end of the economic scales have the same benefits.

Behind this struggle, health care costs are skyrocketing, and two primary reasons for the increase find their roots in these same two groups. Life expectancies in the country are getting longer, and the aging boomers will require more health care for longer periods of time. Funding for the existing government health care systems is declining due to the same reasons that Social Security is facing implosion. More citizens receiving benefits are fewer citizens are paying into the system. The simple equation of...