15 Sep How Nationalized Health Care Would Impact Baby Boomers
Baby Boomers and Nationalized Health Care
Baby boomers have always sought private health care simply because nationalized health care has never been an option. In the debate whether boomers and older people would benefit from a nationalized health system, a number of factors need to be considered.
Baby boomers pay taxes like everyone else. A nationalized system of health care is an expensive commodity and likely to require enormous set up costs in its initial stages, increasing the tax bill for consumers. Baby boomers, unlike the younger generation, have invested a great deal of money in private coverage over the years and built long term relationships with their medical providers. Although private coverage can be expensive, the majority of baby boomers have finance in place for medical cover and have the added advantage of shorter waiting lists for treatment.
In a government controlled health system, baby boomers would encounter the same problems experienced by older patients in the UK, Canada, and New Zealand, where older people are de-listed when their illnesses become too great a burden on state resources.
Unpopular decisions are also made via administration in nationalized health, when a patient in extreme old age is considered for an expensive operation. Younger patients receive priority in such cases, especially when recovery involves a degree of disciplined exercise and physiotherapy. Older patients are judged (sometimes unfairly) to be a poor risk and are refused operations on grounds of practicality. This never happens in private health care where a patient will always get what he pays for regardless, unless his extreme age so limits his chances of recovery that the procedure is deemed dangerous to his own welfare.
Policies concerning age and eligibility are not factors to be considered in the private health sector. Each patient is a paying customer and is treated as such. In a nationalized health situation, baby boomers would likely not be considered for what is generally viewed to be border line cosmetic treatments, such as mole or wart surgery. Private health companies view such issues with the same degree of care as any other ailment.
Many baby boomers would be likely to hang onto their private health cover in the event of a nationalized health service being introduced, for obvious reasons, so would end up effectively paying for both systems. Baby boomers accustomed for years to being treated at the head of the line might find the tedium of changing their system somewhat unpalatable. It would probably be necessary to change doctors, change clinics and physiotherapy centers, in fact to change everything concerned with health care and start over with a new team. For those who cling to tradition and routine, change can be a trauma best avoided in older age.
On the whole, Boomerland is probably better off staying private… or risk being discarded by Nationalized Health Care
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