This post is a response to the question "Do you think socialist healthcare similar to Canada's healthcare system would solve the healthcare affordability problem?" posed by @joshuaweertman.
Given Canada's success with free healthcare distribution to its citizens, it seems like the United States' healthcare system could benefit from free healthcare. There are many citizens now who struggle to afford it, if at all. My aunt and uncle had to do a major reallocation of their finances two years ago when they discovered their nine-year-old daughter has type 1 diabetes. With all of the benefits that government-provided healthcare seems like it can provide, it also has the potential to severely damage the country. One drawback to government-provided healthcare is the funding for it. Taxes will be driven up for all Americans, and because taxes are already financially agonizing, it could drive healthy Americans into debt. Another possible detriment is the change in salary for healthcare professionals. Doctors in Canada are underpaid because of the continuous service that has to be provided in exchange for money that comes from the state. (Picard) The replacement of private payment with payment from the state implies a smaller payment to doctors because the state has to provide a number of other services to its citizens. This is very likely to happen to the United States if healthcare is structured similarly to Canada. Additionally, it has the potential to affect United States' medical professionals worse because the United States has 292 million more inhabitants than Canada. This decrease in payment will likely decrease the number of healthcare workers because one of the most attractive aspects of working in the healthcare industry is its salary. From the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020, it was evident that there were not enough healthcare workers to provide for the influx of patients; having even less healthcare workers because of their salary but relatively the same number of patients because of the free healthcare would create chaos within the country. Because the United States' population size is incomparable to Canada's, the effect of free healthcare is difficult to distinguish.
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