Each update on universal health insurance I hear on the talk shows has a obvious bias. According to certain experts the countries who use socialized medicine have lower standards of living and are forced to ration medical services to the elderly. According to others they see the advantage or bonus of socialized medicine and all its positives and see none of the negative aspects of socialized medicine.

I'm in favor of a universal medical care system. However, we can be sure there are more ways to create a medical care system that will be no better than what we have than there are to create a good system. We have to do this right or we are going to be stuck with the negative aspects of Universal Medical Care without all of the positives.

Few people believe that National healthcare will not create higher taxes. However, we are paying for our broken system already. If some of those costs go away, we may wind up with more money in our pockets.

Today, a sick child who needs emergency expensive medical care will almost certainly be be treated whether or not he or she has the means to pay for the physician or hospital charges. We pay for the medical services. The facility has to charge more. It charges its paying patients to make up for the ones that don't pay. At the same time it ruins the credit of the patient who can't write a check for the cost of the services.

Another potential disadvantage that many are worried about is the drain on our economy that may be caused by those who lose their ambition because they get qualify for free health care. I suppose that only time will tell, but I think that if we have more healthy people more people will be available to work. There are probably more ambitious people who are unable to work because of poor health care than there are people who would become lazy when better health care is available to them.

The positives of socialized medicine include the lessening of employment discrimination for the older workers. If the burden of the cost if insurance were shifted to the government, older and sicker workers may be able to find jobs more often. A potential employer who interviews an older or less healthy applicant, today may focus on how that applicant would raise their group medical insurance premiums and not on the skills and knowledge that person might bring to the job.

Mature workers will in many cases do a better job than less experienced workers. This can increase the efficiency of an employer and mean that the firm and our economy moves forward faster than it would otherwise.

Potential entrepreneurs will be able to start their own business without leaving their health care insurance behind. The fear of losing health insurance has kept many people shackled to jobs that they have long ago out grown. National health care will perhaps allow some great man or woman to invent the next big thing, whatever that may be.

Today a parent may be unable to afford both the food she or he needs to feed their family and the healthcare that they need. This can mean that this parent dies early leaving their babies behind. A medical care system with good preventative care that is available to all can keep these parents around to rear their children and better prepare them to be productive citizens.

I think that what we all want is a stronger economy and a better country. Socialized medicine improves our country by making older, more productive workers more productive. It can also extend the time that some of our youth gets to spend with their parents and have a major impact on our future as a country.