Senator Cruz and Senator Sanders debated this past week on the issue of healthcare. The main concern was with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act put in place by the Obama Administration.
Sanders represented the left’s hope that the ACA would not be repealed and that it would be “fixed” because this Act allows for people who have pre-existing conditions to be covered, and it “guarantees” coverage for those who cannot afford healthcare. Senator Sanders believed that the astronomical increase in the premiums can be further fixed by a more socialized healthcare. He believes that businesses should pay their “fair share” in ensuring that their employees are covered.
This all sounds fine and dandy until you start looking at the facts.
Senator Cruz was able to articulate himself well, and he presented an argument that was not just based on rhetoric and “appeal to emotion,” but he had the facts to back it up. Cruz cited the fact that because of socialized healthcare in countries like the UK and Canada, people are unable to get healthcare when they need it, and the wait time is unsatisfactory. The ACA has increased premiums for people because insurance companies are able to monopolize their services within states, and they accomplished this through lobbying the Democratic legislature under the Obama Administration.
The free-market approach would enable more competition and would allow for healthcare services to compete which would in turn drive the prices down. Business needs to be able to grow and compete, and because of overreaching regulation, they have been stifled, and this has hampered potential economic growth that could have resulted in the creation of jobs and the stimulation of the economy. I know many personal examples of people in the medical field who were unable to continue their private practice because of the ACA, and because the ACA does not allow people to “choose their own doctors.” I also know cases of people who do not have medical insurance simply because they cannot afford it due to the astronomical insurance prices that were spurred by Obamacare.
Now, when liberals are unable to defend these facts, they resort to the argument that “healthcare is a right.” No, it’s not! No where in the Constitution and in the Bill of Rights does it state that healthcare is a “right.” Healthcare is a service that must be produced by others. I don’t hear people saying that “food is a right.” The talk of rights is utter baloney, and if you really want to ensure that you have the “right to have healthcare.” Then you would want less government and less regulation. Socialized healthcare dictates your freedoms in choosing healthcare, and it creates a central power that allocates resources according to “who needs it the most.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t want someone else telling me what I need or don’t need, and that is exactly what a socialized system is.
