In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the defective healthcare system in the United States is once again revealing its glaring flaws, as evidenced by the radically high costs of medical treatments and a substantial number of patients reluctant to seek hospital aid in fear of bills that will bankrupt their entire family. Each year, the government spends almost 23% of its budget — highest in the world — on health care yet its outcomes are far from desired. Unreasonably high bills, lack of federal policy, partisan dissension, and powerful private insurance companies (interest groups) have muddled the system and created a perpetual cycle of overpayment, leading to detrimental repercussions — such as the mishandled COVID response. Government should initiate a tax-based, single-payer healthcare system which would best ameliorate the current healthcare crisis.

Universal — and highly comprehensive — healthcare has been implemented in almost every developed nation other than the United States. That said, more than 30 millions Americans are — whether for socioeconomic reasons or lack of information — uninsured, meaning they are at high risks of bankruptcy when they fall sick. For an uninsured person, a systemic ER visit resulting from a minor injury would cost up to $5000 or higher, including $1300 for the ambulance and a blood test costing $1000 — all exorbitant prices which epitomize a corrupted market. Hospitals make their own prices, so if you don’t have insurance, it simply means no corporation is negotiating on your behalf to demand lower prices, allowing the hospital to charge excessively and maximize profit. This overcharge issue leads to a prevalent bankruptcy rate for American households. The health industry has turned into an impasse of overpayment, overcharge, and formidable lobbying influence. A free market health industry simply isn’t working.

Even for someone who’s already insured, the whole process can still get fairly complicated. Each insurer has to meet a certain deductible, pay a percent of co-insurance until the out-of-pocket limit is reached, and beware of the co-payment policy. All these skimpy terms and regulations are meticulously written by private insurance companies not to serve and protect, but to tempt you into complicated concepts in order to benefit. Many people don’t fully understand all those regulations therefore may still end up with a bill to cry for. Countless occurrences have proven that insurers set up misinformation to take advantage of their clients’ faith. The contemporary healthcare system, predominantly reigned by rigged corporations, should be fundamentally cured.

The dilemma demonstrates a market failure and calls upon the need for government’s interference by legislating public policies to limit the private sector’s uncontrollable power.

Initiating a single-payer, non-discriminatory national insurance program should be a top-priority for policy makers to ensure their citizens’ well-being. With no co-payments, no premiums, zero deductibles, and no surprise bills, the government’s objective should be to care for the people — fostering research, developing new technologies, and relieving the burden off everyone’s back — rather than overlooking the corporations’ profiteering and hospitals’ outrageous administrative costs. Congress should shift its extravagant fundings on public health to enrich the public rather than inflating medical costs at all levels. This agenda obtains the lowest opportunity cost — since excessive payment and exploitation is in no means the desired alternative nor outcome of a free market, meaning the government should firmly grasp the industry to provide the best possible care.

Nevertheless, political opposition — many swayed by lobbyists from insurance companies — refused policies on federal interference; without a majority congressional support, this plan is seemingly unfeasible. Those opulent corporations (desperate to keep the status quo) formed a deadlock that hampers any reform. Moreover, with the current administration’s indifferent attitude — shaped by its deviating agenda — obtaining universal care in the near future does not seem plausible.

Previous endeavors, most significantly the Affordable Care Act, do shed glimmers on the benefits of a comprehensive health policy.

Universal healthcare isn’t a step towards totalitarianism, but a duty out of ethics.