Like it or not the senior citizens of this country are already enrolled in a " Universal Health Care " program called Medicare. Rich or poor, it does not matter, all are participants. The rich can opt out and pay for private health care, but they can not opt out of paying basic Medicare insurance premiums or at least that is my understanding. Curiously, for something administered and managed by the Federal Government it seems to work, the cost issues and sustainability of the program aside for the moment. If you really want to start an interesting thread on this forum submit an argument the Medicare program should be disbanded and that we need to revert to the private health care system which existed in this country in the 1940-50s when if you were not rich, did not have access to employer sponsored health care, or simply did not have he money to pay for the generally limited private health insurance then available, if you got sick good luck. In those decades your illness went untreated until you were admitted to the hospital to die. Prior to then, it was even better, since you simply died at home after lots of painful suffering.
How any senior enjoying the benefits of this " Universal Health " care program can argue in good conscience the younger "citizens " of this country no matter their economic circumstances or state of health should not have similar access to health care escapes me.
I know some will feel differently but at least start your argument, if it indeed has substance, with the proposition the current Medicare program should be legislated out of existence and that all those dependent on it should in the future rely on their own financial resources and/or the charity of their friends and neighbors for their health care needs.
As to costs, which really control the sustainability of any " Universal Health " care program, they must be regulated in some fashion. Do you regulate the cost of medical services and drugs and risk losing the advances in health care the profitability those services and drugs profits create ? Do you regulate the profitability of the services and drugs to allow for the advances in medical science to continue ? Do you tell the citizens they live in a capitalistic society and they need to willingly absorb whatever costs result from that decision ? Who else can do any of these things other then the Federal Government ?
Who other then the Federal Government has the power and ability to both mandate participation in a " Universal Health " care program and to regulate the cost of the program itself ? I personally do not wish that was the case, but private enterprise would not appear to be up to the task of doing so and would be need to be empowered by the government to do so as well bringing us back to square one.
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