I refrained from officially taking a position on the issue of socialized health care for a long time, simply because I was unsure of what I thought. The philosophy of socialized health care, much like the philosophy of socialized anything, defied the overall ideals of individualism and Libertarianism to which I adhere. On the other hand, I had been told that the socialized health care in Canada is a smooth-running and wholly satisfying system that Canadians love and of which Americans are envious. Who am I to argue about whether or not it's philosophically and theoretically sound if I have already been proven wrong by the fact that they already did it and it works? On the other hand, doing additional research led to staggering amounts of articles that go on at length about how unsatisfied Canadians are with their own health care system. Hearing mixed reviews from the media, I now turn to any real people that happen to be reading this: How good is the system? Please tell me.

After much thought, I have finally decided that socialized health care is not a sound idea in America, even if those articles are wrong and it works fine in Canada. The main reason for this is there are simply too many controversial health issues, and the issue of tax funding has mired too many advances and proposed changes.

American culture runs the whole spectrum of viewpoints on every conceivable issue. The only thing all Americans have in common is their subliminal urge to defend their viewpoints to the death. From militant environmentalists to militant oil rig workers and from militant liberalism to militant conservatism, every conceivable position has its supply of militant believers. (Yes, militant liberalism is indeed possible.) As to the question of what this has to do with socialized health care, think of all the things tax funding (or as American culture calls it, "your own hard-earned money") pays for. Should your money pay for stem-cell research? Should it pay for abortion clinics? What about euthanasia? Transgender operations? Medicare? People who gets hospitalized while doing something stupid they saw it on television? No matter where you stand, you do not have to look hard to find tax dollars supporting something you directly oppose*. America simply cannot handle a socialized health care system; anything more advanced than leech therapy will be picketed by someone.

The unwillingness to pay for things of which one disapproves has also stood in the way of many social reforms. I am a strong believer in drug legalization, but I have to conceive that if there is a sharp increase in casual drug use and overdose, there would be a greater strain to our health system. I believe that people have the right to buy cigarettes even knowing their health risks, but it is true that large numbers of lung cancer patients can wreak havoc on the health system fairly quickly. Even though seat belts' saving lives is a proven fact hardly anyone ever disputes, making it illegal to not wear them seems extremely patronizing. However, people get more injured when they do not wear seat belts, and the injuries add more of a burden to the health system. In general, the government enacts a lot of horrible policies to try and protect citizens from themselves, but the disquieting reality is that it has to, or else said citizens will be too much for any kind of public health care system to bear.

Thus, the only solution I can see is completely privatizing health care. This may frighten people who worry that losing governmental supervision will undo their protection from horribly sloppy street doctors, but I think it may actually be the other way around. If a private insurance company is screwing you over, you can switch to a different insurance company. If a governmental plan was screwing you over, all you could do is write a letter to your local representative and hope something happens. If a private hospital is lacking in cleanliness and full of malpractice, it could fall to a class-action lawsuit. If a government-run hospital is lacking in cleanliness and full of malpractice, all you can do is vote for a candidate who promises to get tough on health care reform and hope they actually mean it. Which scenario seems to have better odds?

* Please note that I was merely naming hot-button issues and have not specifically implied my personal support or opposition on of them. I only wish to point out how things get controversial. My stances on all of those are subjects for another discourse.

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