American Healthcare System

The economic principle I examined was because of scarcity, people choose. All choices have an opportunity cost.  There are many situations where this economic principle can be applied to the real world. For instance, while studying how could the US government pay healthcare for everyone and what would be the opportunity cost of doing so, I found many examples of this principle. First, I talked about scarcity in the healthcare system. Because of scarcity of doctors and their time, there would be an unequal amount of care.  This shows universal healthcare wouldn’t actually help as many people. No matter how many hours the doctors work, not all patient would be able to be treated in a reasonable amount of time. That would lead to healthcare professionals to choose who to treat first and that could be unfair. Second, I compared America’s healthcare system with Canada’s universal healthcare. Doctors everywhere want to help their patients and in Canada they saved many lives while saving money at the same time. The disadvantages are some medical treatments are not included in the healthcare. This demonstrates that citizens could have more access to care, but if things like drugs and certain treatments aren’t included it might not help. People with conditions such as heart conditions and certain types of cancers might still not be able to afford treatment. Third,I focused on stories from patients in Norway where they have universal healthcare. Many patients were treated poorly and were turned away at hospitals. This means that the healthcare system there is not working well. Many people’s illness or injury got worse because they could not get in to see a doctor.  Overall, I do not believe that universal healthcare is the best option for the U.S. I think healthcare should be a free market and low income people should be given money to pay for healthcare. This would allow them to get the money they need for the specific treatment or illness they have.