Health Care

"The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system" (IMNAS 1). Universal health care publicly funds all citizens of the United States under a government-sponsored system regardless of employment status or income level (Torrey 1). At first glance, it would appear that the system would be beneficial; nevertheless, there are many flaws and sacrifices that Americans are unaware about. Universal health care is defective because it eliminates patient-doctor privacy, does not deliver complete quality, and calls for a high tax increase.

Patient-Doctor confidentiality and Patient-Doctor privilege both assure the patient the right to withhold evidence from discovery and the right to refrain from disclosing information (ACS 1). This principle not only includes conversation, but also medical records, x-rays, and lab reports. With universal health care, the patients' medical records are not private and personal information is centralized within the government. The patient's bill of rights is a patient legally has the right to be informed of accurate information along with health care plans and facilities; choice of provided plans; access to emergency services without penalty, respect and non-discrimination, and confidentiality (ACS 1).

The decisions that drive health-care costs and quality of care are made by individual patients and their health-care providers; these decisions should not be influenced by universal government mandates or administered pricing systems. In this situation, government procedures deprive patients' quality, resulting in neglected care. Patients may be subjected into extremely long waits for treatment. According to the director of Health System Performance Studies at the Fraser Institute, Nadeem Esmail, wait times in Canada have reached an all-time high. He states:

It's becoming clearer that Canada's current health-care system cannot meet the needs of Canadians in a timely and efficient manner, unless you consider access to a waiting list timely and efficient (Esmail 1).

Continuing this further, studies show that Canadian patients, on average, wait 17.1 weeks for treatment (CBC 1). This results in unnecessary deaths

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development shows that Canada's spending on universal health care is among the highest but is among the lowest quality. To control expenses and limit costs the services and procedures are kept to a minimal sufficiency.

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This is an example of how the government limits funding for one institution to increase funding for another area in health care. Both institutions cannot excel when cost is the issue, consequently, restricting medical advances. These adverse

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