What are the pros and cons of universal medicare?

Question

What are the pros and cons of universal medicare?

Answer 1

CON: Universial HEALTHCARE (WHICH IS WHAT I THINK YOU MEAN?) weakens the health care system by taken money from thriving well known hospitals like Yale and gives it to poor delapidated ones and centralizes the funds

- Health care professionals get paid less

Should doctors who spend years in school and working hard saving lives should get paid as much as mcdonalds burger flippers? NO!

Sorry no PROS!

Answer 2

I have never heard a term "universal Medicare"!

Perhaps you are questioning traditional Medicare?

Are you trying to compare it to a managed Medicare product?

Answer 3

Universal Healthcare -

PROs -

1)  When you go to the Doctors' Office, you don't pay much (or possibly anything) out of pocket.  

2) You don't have to worry about what anything costs, because everything has been provided for you.  There is no need to shop around at different hospitals, because the cost to you will never, ever change.  

3) You will always have health insurance, and will never be involved in a triage situation based on your financial standing (at least in theory).

CON -

1) You'll be giving up 40+% of every paycheck you make, and yes, that is in addition to the amount you already pay to the government.  

2) Some government plebian will be the one who decides whether or not your medical claim is "Medically Necessary" and therefore covered, or if you're out on your own.  (Right now, medical professionals do that.)  

3) Delays will dramatically increase for all major surgeries, and the institutions forced to submit to the Universal Healthcare Coverage will level out their quality of care (that may be good for some EXTREMELY low-end hospitals, but generally speaking, everyone comes down to the lowest common denominator), and specialized institutions that find a way to avoid the government's mandate will become prohibitively expensive, making it impossible for people on a normal income to afford at all.

4) YOU LOSE THE ABILITY TO CHOOSE YOUR BENEFITS.  Whatever the coverage will be, whatever price the government sets, whatever stick they want to use: you will have no choice in the matter whatsoever.

Answer 4

I can't think of any pros for universal healthcare.  It may be "free" for some people, but 'there is no such thing as a free lunch'.  

The price to be paid is poor impersonal service, long waits, some nameless disinterested bureaucrat determining your fate, a system choked with trivial medical care needs, etc. etc.

Further, if I were of above average capability and intelligence, why would I want to make the time and dollars investment to become a physician working for the government at whatever 'fair' wage they determine, when I could be making more money as, say, an architect, or a politician.