Economics

In the United States its citizens are the victims of inflationary forces in its healthcare system. The annual prices in of the US healthcare are increasing at an alarming rate of 14. In the United States people and companies pay for healthcare plans. Despite the high cost Americans received some of the best healthcare in the world. Due to the cost certain politicians and many interest groups believe that an alternative solution that could fix the problem is to select a universal health care plan. A universal healthcare plan implies that the government picks up the entire healthcare bill. The measure does raise the income of the people by reducing their living expenses associated with healthcare, but it also reduces the quality of the healthcare they received. The most common tool used by governments that have universal healthcare is rationing. Rationing means limiting the amount of healthcare provided to participants of the plan. The actual mechanism that leads to rationing is time delays. In Canada for example people have to wait several months before receiving the care because of rationing.

Questions (4)
1.
The outcome in a scenario is which food was the item being rationed instead of healthcare would be much different due to the nature of the product. Waiting for food is not an alternative since people are supposed to eat three times a day with a consumption of at least 2000 calories. The situation would be similar as the government being the primary provider. The cost of food would go down as well in this food rationing in comparison with the free market because the government would be eliminating the middleman.

2.
If American were not satisfied with the healthcare they receive they could go to Mexico to receive treatment. Since Mexico is developing countries they can provider cheaper healthcare. Since the dollar is valued much higher than the Mexican peso the American patient has bargaining power. American can order drug prescriptions from Canada where the cost of drugs is much cheaper than in the United States.

3.
Health insurance companies are private entities. The private industry is typically more efficient than the government because they do not have to deal with bureaucracy. Also the private industry has many years of experience dealing with the healthcare systems. In the United States the government has never played the role of the provider of services. It is inevitable that inefficiencies may occur due to learning curve considerations.

4.
People need as much healthcare as possible. There should never be any limits to the amount of healthcare a person receives. To me the things that happen in Canada as far as rationing of healthcare are an atrocity. When a person is sick he should have wait for long periods of time prior to receiving the care. The person would get worse and in critical patient die prior to receiving the care.

Alternative solution
After reading the article Rationing Health Care I believe that might not be so easy for the US to adopt a universal healthcare system. The free market works, but in the United States the prices are out of control. The government could regulate the industry to control prices such as what is done in certain agricultural and food products such as milk whose price is standardized in many states and US territories.