I believe that healthcare is a right. If the government helped to subsidize healthcare costs, we would not only benefit those who cannot pay but those who can. Preventive medicine, shown to effectively lower overall healthcare costs (cheaper to deal with a problem by preventing it or catching it early on than having to pay to fix a bigger problem later). Unfortunately, this type of care is often unavailable (there are some prenatal and child care programs available in different states, e.g. CHIP in California). Most visits by uninsured people to doctors is at emergency rooms, where costs are substantially higher.
There is also a common misconception among Americans that if you are really in trouble--healthwise--you can get help. Although it is illegal, it is not uncommon for hospitals to try to dump emergency patients with no healthcare (I think the rate is 15 to 20%).
Another problem is people who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to purchase health insurance. Medicaid only covers 41% of those who are classified as poor and fails to cover the lower middle and middle class workers who make enough but not enough to pay for coverage. This is a significant group of people that is growing in number every month. In fact, free (or reduced rate clinics) have seen a rise in patient population of 45% during the last ten years.
But...I have to admit, government involvement in healthcare can lead to problems. In Canada, there are sometimes problems getting surgeries approved, etc. Britain is also facing difficulties in finding funding for their NHS (plans are underway to restructure the system and include more private companies in the healthcare process). However, many European countries have had success in setting up adequate and high-quality healthcare services. A recent WHO study on the cost-effectiveness of healthcare services around the globe found the USA to be 1st in spending but 54th in terms of access and fairness (WHO World Health Report 2000).
Also, the US already spends nearly twice as much on administrative costs than Canada (per capita) and so if we did institute some type of subsidized health services, we would likely be able to eliminate the long wait times that Canadians experience.
Moreover, queueing for health services already exists in the US, even for those who are insured. Patients already wait sometimes months to be approved to see specialists and have procedures performed. Especially so if you are under a managed care plan. I was a research assistant on an organ transplant and cancer study and I found that patients who were covered under managed care had great difficulty trying to get procedures approved. Some of the health plans even tried to move patients shortly after their surgeries to their own hospitals to decrease costs (moving transplant patients quickly after surgery is not a good idea)
Another sad fact is that as hospitals are facing lower and lower payment schedules from insurance companies, they are increasing the fees they charge to the uninsured. So basically, the poorer uninsured patients are helping to subsidize the lower healthcare costs of the more affluent (not necessarily well off) patients.
It is unlikely that any type of so-called "socialized medicine" or universal coverage will be established in the near future. Very powerful forces (Private Insurance Companies, Hospitals, AMA, etc.) are opposed to it. AMSA (medical students) is one of the few groups who support a one-payer system.
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