Two Reasons to Support Universal Healthcare

It's not hard to make a case for universal health care. We can argue about the nitty gritty details on how it ought to work, but let's not. Let's save that argument for another day. Right now, I'd simply like to argue that all people ought to have health care. Two reasons back my argument: (1) we pay for health care one way or another, so let's admit that and budget for it, and (2) our dependence on costly health insurance discourages people from venturing out on their own away from companies able to provide health insurance.

If I get hit by a car and lack health insurance, do you think that a hospital is going to help me? Yes, of course it will if the practitioners there want to honor their Hippocratic Oath or if they practice in a region that has a good Samaritan law requiring them to do so. So, who pays if I don't have insurance or the money to fund the care? We all pay. One way or another, you and I pay. We pay the bill with the money put toward taxes, or we pay it in increased medical bills or some other way. Let's just stop kidding ourselves, and cover everyone's medical expenses from the get go.

Still hesitant or outright opposed to universal health care? Well, consider the more important issue: dependence on costly health insurance discourages people from venturing out on their own away from companies able to provide health insurance. This is a problem for several reasons: it discourages entrepreneurship, it hinders the arts, and it persuades people to avoid taking extended periods of time for themselves, or traveling.

Entrepreneurship is important but often those wanting to spend all of their time developing a new slurpy machine, for example, are put off by the fear of losing their ability to pay for health insurance. The loss of better slurpy machines is a real tragedy but what's worse is the loss of art.

Those who wish to sit in the woodshed practicing the horn all day in order to serve society with the much needed healing touch of live music are often unable to do so if they want to make sure they and their family have adequate health coverage.

Sometimes ya just need to "get away from it all" for a few months and hit the reset button. At times, this is one of the few ways to gain the clarity needed to navigate one's life. This can be done traveling or staying put. World travel has additional benefits.

Canadians travel throughout South East Asia, Europe, Africa, anywhere, and  they do so, with the security of knowing that they have coverage. I believe that traveling to different parts of the world changes the way that we see the world and interact within it. This is an increasingly important transformation giving the ever shrinking world. Not to mention that often, it's a lot of fun, it's a good way to meet cool people, and ya can't beat the food.