Don't overlook universal health care's benefits

[surfermaw]

Don't overlook universal health care's benefits

It is not right that hard-working families go without medical care

LAURA STINSON

Special to The Observer


I've been reading about the pitfalls of universal health coverage, including the necessary tax hike to provide for it. I know money is tight, and no one really wants to pay higher taxes -- particularly for something as frivolous as universal health coverage, which, it has been purported, will result in inferior medical care.

Wait. It can get worse?

I don't have enough space to lament medical care in the 21st century, and there are plenty of problems to discuss. Lack of accessibility in medical facilities, incomprehensible amounts of paperwork, ill-informed medical professionals ... the list goes on. That is a discussion I'll save for another day.

But the idea that universal health care could cause substandard medical service is a bit farfetched. For starters, any government-provided health coverage should be only a foundation, used by consumers for their individual insurance requirements and supplemented with additional coverage as needed.

Universal health coverage must be necessary because, as of 2001, there were more than 41 million Americans without health insurance, a number that continues to rise. These people are not unemployed or poverty-stricken. The majority of them come from working, middle-class families who cannot afford the ever-increasing insurance rates or whose employers have stopped providing coverage.

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