While there is an ongoing debate on the application of socialized health care versus that of private health care, there is no question that a socialist approach to providing health care for everyone is attractive to many people and has a number of benefits. One of the most often cited benefits is that the program is available for all people, regardless of social or economic standing. This type of universal health care appears to lessen the chance that a person with no health insurance will choose to not seek health care in the event of an illness. One of the underlying principles of socialized health care is that every citizen of a given country has an inherent human right to receive at least a minimal standard of medical attention.
Proponents often point to the vast numbers of uninsured citizens in countries where private health care is the norm. The question is sometimes asked about what happens to those who are temporarily out of work or otherwise have to decide whether to seek a medical professional’s care or use their funds to buy food or pay rent. With a program of socialized health care, those types of choices do not have to be made, except in extreme cases.
Socialized health care is also often seen as a means of keeping down the overall costs for providing medical care within a given country. Since countries that operate with a public health care system rather than a state-sponsored health care strategy tend to spend a higher percentage of their gross national profit on health care, the conclusion is that the free market system encourages the increase spending on such items as administrative costs. This in turn translates into higher insurance premiums and higher costs for out of pocket expenses for medication after the insurance deductible is met. With socialized health care, the amount of funds used for administrative purposes is kept within proscribed limits, thus keeping the cost of providing health care within acceptable limits.
It should be noted that not all current socialized health care programs function exactly the same. As an example, there are differences in the system employed in Canada when compared to that in use within the United Kingdom. In the end, consumers are in the best position to determine whether a public health care system is superior to a socialized plan, or vice versa.
