Universal health care is a system that provides quality medical services to all citizens. The federal government offers it to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. The sheer cost of providing quality health care makes universal health care a large expense for governments. Â Most universal health care is funded by general income taxes or payroll taxes.
The United States is the only one of the 33 developed countries that doesn’t have universal health care.  But its health delivery system does have specific components, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, that provide universal health care to specific populations.
Advantages
Lowers overall health care costs: The government controls the prices through negotiation and regulation.
Lowers administrative costs: Doctors only deal with one government agency. For example, U.S. doctors spend four times as much as Canadians dealing with insurance companies.
Forces hospitals and doctors to provide the same standard of service at a low cost: In a competitive environment like the United States, health care providers must also focus on profit. They do this by offering the newest technology. They offer expensive services and pay doctors more. They try to compete by targeting the wealthy.
Creates a healthier workforce: Studies show that preventive care reduces the need for expensive emergency room usage.  Without access to preventive care, 46% of emergency room patients went because they had no other place to go.5 They used the emergency room as their primary care physician. This health care inequality is a big reason for the rising cost of medical care.
Early childhood care prevents future social costs: These include crime, welfare dependency, and health issues. Â Health education teaches families how to make healthy lifestyle choices, preventing chronic diseases.
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Governments can impose regulations and taxes to guide the population toward healthier choices: Regulations make unhealthy choices, such as drugs, illegal. Sin taxes, such as those on cigarettes and alcohol, make them more expensive.
Disadvantages
Healthy people pay for others' medical care: Chronic diseases make up 90% of health care costs. Â The sickest 5% of the population create 50% of total health care costs, while the healthiest 50% only create 3% of costs.
People have less financial incentive to stay healthy: Without a copay, people might overuse emergency rooms and doctors.
There are long wait times for elective procedures: The government focuses on providing basic and emergency health care.
Doctors may cut care to lower costs if they aren't well paid by cost-cutting governments: For example, doctors report Medicare payment cuts will force them to close many in-house blood testing labs.
Health care costs overwhelm government budgets. For example, some Canadian provinces spend almost 40% of their budgets on health care.
The government may limit those services with a low probability of success. This includes drugs for rare conditions and expensive end-of-life care. In the United States, care for patients in the last six years of life makes up one-fourth of the Medicare budget.
