FREE HEALTHCARE OR FREEDOM OF CHOICE?

“ Should the Government fund free healthcare through taxes or should citizens pay themselves with private health insurance? ”

No	Topic	Brief Explanation
1.	INTRODUCTION	-          The uses of taxes. -          The importance of paying taxes, introduce the topic of health-care. -          The issue about government should fund free healthcare through taxes. -          State my side of the team.
2.	1st ARGUMENT	‘Complicated Argument’ -          The government has already enough costs to pay. Don’t complicate things even more. -          The cost is not that simple and not that easy to cover.
3.	2nd ARGUMENT	‘Cost Argument’ -          Basically, more subsidies means more taxes to pay. -          People are losing job because the Obligation of paying healthcare taxes.
4.	3rd ARGUMENT	‘Freedom Argument’ -          It’s the people choice whether they wanted to pay healthcare through governments or by private health insurance. -          It’s their reward for their hardwork in their job. -          You lose your freedom of choice. Eventually, the government is the one who decide what kind of treatment you could get and what’s not.
5.	COUNTER-ARGUMENT	The Argument: “It’s not fair for the society. The rich is the one who could afford the healthcare and the poor will just gonna accept their fate and die.” Counter-Argument: The government is not a health-care company.There are lots of health-care companies who are willing to help those who cannot afford to pay for their health-care. Don’t burden everything to the government and expect the government to do everything for you.
6.	CONCLUSION	-          Summary of the three arguments and conclude my side of the team.

 

Taxes. I’m sure everyone heard about this word. What is taxes? According to Wikipedia, taxes is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed upon an individual. Or in a simple word, it is something that you supposed to pay in order to maintain your country well-being. In a coutry, taxes is one of the main financial sources in terms of having an adequate facilities such as nice road, neat public transportation, free-education, etc. It is important for the civilians to be aware regarding this topic. Taxes are might as well be used to help reduce the amount of fee that people have to pay for their healthcare. Based on National Health Service (NHS) regulation in UK regarding healthcare, it is stated that UK parted 8.5% of the total tax to provide people a free national healthcare services, approximately £122.5 billion. Still, many people are struggling for an adequate healthcare service in UK despite the fact that the government has cost that huge amount of money, which lead us to the question, is it really worth it? Should the government fund free healthcare through taxes? Can’t the citizens just pay for themselves with private health insurance? In this essay, I will state my arguments on why it is better for the citizens to just pay for their own healthcare rather than depend on the government to fund them with free healthcare through taxes.

First, the government had already enough costs to pay to maintain the country. Although I agree that one of the characteristic of a developed country is how well their health services are, we need to be aware that health is not the only problem that a country had to concern. Education, Security, Public Facilities, Environment, and still many other things are also need to be taking care of. Since Suharto years of presidency (1967), Indonesia have been trying to increase the standard level of education. Nevertheless, Indonesia are still ranked at half of the worst education-level in the world according to US News World Report. This shows that education is a far major problem that the government has to get their attention to. By adding a program to fully support a free healthcare for the country, the health issue may decrease, but at the same time it will create another instability for the country.

Second, the poor is not always on the aggrieved side. In a brief sight, free healthcare through taxes seems to be a good option for the country, in order to help balancing the gap between the high-class and the lower one. But, if we look at an article from ‘The Guardian’ news site, it is stated that even though people with higher salary has been charged with higher taxes, Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) said the survey of 22,000 people was “deeply troubling” and revealed that nearly 60% of respondents do not think they are getting their “fair share” back for the taxes they pay. By this evidence, we can see that by charging the rich with higher taxes doesn’t necessarily create an equal adequate healthcare for everyone.

Third, free healthcare from the government means the government get to decide your healthcare services. I’m going to take an example of a guy named Floridian Enrique Padron. He recently shared his experience of being born and growing up in Castro-led Cuba with “free” government provided education and healthcare. His home had a dirt floor and no insulation or running water. Their bathroom was a hole-in-the-ground shared with six other families. They didn’t have the ability to fix their home because their government-provided salary was approximately $6 per month, and there was no access to a hardware store to purchase the tools needed. Government approval was needed before even a bag or cement or box of nails could be purchased — and that was if these things were even available. Their “free” healthcare came from doctors who lived on a paltry 25 cents per hour and in hospitals that look more like abandoned warehouses than the pristine, state-of-art facilities that exist in a free America. The quality of care in Cuba is disastrous, and the quality of education poor, but citizens are told to be quiet and be grateful for what the government provides. In making his decision to flee Cuba, Padron came to realize that he didn’t need free services; he needed freedom. Freedom to better himself. Freedom of choice. From Padron’s experience, we can see how ‘free’ healthcare could resulting in an absolute control from the government about their life choices. People deserve a system that allows them to get the healthcare they need, from the doctor of they choose, at a price they can afford.

Now, many people would probably say, “It is the government responsibility to provide the citizens healthcare services, otherwise the one who can afford the adequate service will be people who are rich and the poor won’t be able to afford it.”. Although it is true that the government has the responsibilty to benefit the citizens, it doesn’t necessarily build a fact that it is their obligation to provide a free healthcare. I’ve mentioned about this on my first argument, the government has so many things to handle and organize, not just limited on health-care. The government is not a healthcare company nor your bank source. We cannot just expect for the government to keep facilitating us with free services, free stuff, or an enjoyable life with a really high standard that comes for free. We have to earn it. As Neha Kashyap said, “Nothing is free in this world. Everything has its own price, either it’s Money or Life”. Besides, there are other healthcare company that are willing to help those in need regarding health services. Take one example, a healthcare company called ‘Acumen’. If you read their website, you could gain informations about how they can help those who has a low salary in need for a healthcare products or services, such as ambulance, healthcare education, eye-care, health insurance for families, you named it.

To sum it up, I think governments providing free healthcare isn’t really a best option for a country to apply. It comes with so many possibilities such as more debt as the cost will go higher, more problem to solved for the government, more things to handle, trust issues, freedom issues, dependancy issues, and so on. In conclusion, should the government fund free healthcare through taxes? My answer is: No, they shouldn’t.