On July 28, Charlie Gard, the terminally ill infant from the United Kingdom, passed away. This came just days after the announcement from his parents that they were dropping their case to have Charlie brought to America for an experimental treatment that was only available here.
The Charlie Gard incident is a tragic one, but it has a valuable lesson for Americans. It shows the faults in the single-payer healthcare system that many people want the United States to move toward. It shows the dangers of a deeply regulated and bureaucratic government-run health system.
The idea of universal healthcare was tossed around a lot during this past election and has become a staple of the more socialist branch of the Democrats. But what does universal healthcare mean, and what are its real costs?
While every American should have access to healthcare, it is not something that can be mandated. Healthcare is a service — one that the professionals in its field go through vigorous training and education at high cost in order to practice. You cannot fix a price and determine how much their service is worth: The free market does that. Failure to allow the free market to sufficiently be implemented in healthcare is what has caused such high premiums and overall costs.
The government regulating and interfering has not had beneficial results — if you need evidence of just how inefficient it can be, just stop by your local DMV.
What we saw in the Charlie Gard case was that when the government is involved in healthcare, it takes the decision-making process away from individuals. The decision to remove Gard from life support was not made by his parents, but by a high court ruling handed down by a Justice.
A single-payer system means that we are willing to potentially give up our say in our own healthcare.
Had Gard’s family been allowed to give him the treatment sooner, they say he “had the potential to be a normal, healthy little boy.” So, when considering the future of healthcare for the U.S., take into account the track record of our own government, as well as the U.K.'s, and exactly how much say they should have in your life.