Furthermore, switching to this system will enable citizens to act irresponsibly with the comfort of receiving free healthcare. This is mostly because it is part of the human nature to make use out of what is given. Which is very convenient and smart in most cases but people tend to take it too far. In this case, people will become careless about their health due to their access to free healthcare at all times. When people do not pay enough attention to their health the number of sick people will increase. As the number of patients starts rising the doctors will become overwhelmed. They will struggle to keep up with all of the patients and will have longer work hours. As doctors work more, they will request a higher salary and the government will struggle to provide the requested money.
Brazil is one of the many countries that has adopted this system and the US isn’t. Based on researches, the average income level for doctors in US, is 6 times higher than Brazil. (Kane, 2019) This proves that the income of the doctors decrease with the system causing them to struggle providing quality healthcare or healthcare at all. With the rising number of patients, the queues will get extensively long as well as the waiting times. For instance, Canada has been facing this problem since switching to the system and is even known for their exceptionally long queues and waiting times. The Fraser Institute has stated that “Waiting for treatment has become a defining characteristic of Canadian health care.” (Bacchus Barua, 2019) This proves that the problem has gotten out of hand and that everyone has accepted the situation. In addition, the increasing number of patients doctors will be extremely busy for unnecessary reasons and will not be available when required for urgent matters such as surgeries. Bacchus Barua also stated that “Long wait times for medically necessary treatments increase suffering for patients, decrease quality of life, and in the worst cases, lead to disability or death,” (Bacchus Barua, 2019) This sentence demonstrates how long wait times and appointments for unimportant reasons will cause hospitals to have poor emergency and will risk human life.
Overall, even though it should be a human right to get free healthcare, countries should not switch to the universal healthcare system because of the economic problems it will create, the technological developments it will limit and the effect it will have on the way people act. Although the idea may seem brilliant at first, it should not be applied due to the many downsides. If countries feel that the recent system with both public and private healthcare is not working out, this system could easily be rearranged to succeed. First of all, the biggest problem people have with the recent system is the quality of healthcare provided in public hospitals. This could easily be solved with simple steps. The main reason why healthcare in public hospitals is not high quality is the lack of equipment. Public hospitals sometimes struggle to diagnose illnesses or treat them because of the lack of equipment. This problem could also be solved with a small amount of money and professionals. With this money, Public hospitals could work with professionals to buy quality equipment to improve their healthcare.
Whether the equipment is expensive or not will not matter because money spent will be from a special budget. Another problem people have is the staff members. Patients mostly prefer private hospitals because they believe doctors who work there are well educated and better than the one’s working in the public hospitals. This is mostly not true but in some cases, experienced doctors prefer to work at private hospitals because they get paid more money and they are treated better. This can also be solved with a special budget saved for improving the conditions of the doctors and raising their salary. The doctors conditions could be improved by giving them flexible working hours, providing sanitized and comfortable places to work and considering their concerns so they do not prefer private hospitals. When countries have accomplished all these steps citizens will respect the healthcare system and live with safety. If this system is not modified, the healthcare systems in all countries will be ruined for good resulting in many deaths and a sudden decrease in population. In conclusion, the government should try to improve and develop the current system instead of creating a brand new one.
