• The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010 has made health-care reform a prominent issue. The bill greatly expands the availability of guaranteed health coverage. It does so by requiring larger employers to subsidize coverage for workers, by severely curtailing the ability of insurers to decline covering those with pre-existing conditions, eliminating lifetime spending caps and requiring individuals to buy approved health insurance plans or pay a fine. President Barack Obama is on record as favoring a single-payer health care system, which would require the government to be the sole funder of major medical treatments. This can lead to some negatives
  
  

Decreased Choice

• Under the system in place as of 2010, young and healthy individuals are free to forgo health insurance coverage or choose high-deductible plans that cover them for catastrophic events only. This allows them to use their money for savings, investment or consumption. A universal system would inhibit Americans' personal economic freedoms.
  
  

Costs

• The current package of health reforms are expected to cost the taxpayer over $900 billion over the next decade. Critics of universal health care argue that we cannot afford another major entitlement program with federal deficits at record levels.
  
  

Rationing

• Critics of universal health care have pointed out that government officials must effectively ration care -- a criticism encapsulated in Sarah Palin's famous "death panels" remark. Critics point to the limited availability of certain drugs and medical procedures in the UK and Canada, which have already rolled out national health insurance programs for their citizens.
  
  

Decreased innovation

• Skeptics are concerned that a universal health insurance plan would discourage investments in new medical technologies, including pharmaceutical research, medical electronics and biotechnology.
  
  

Care provider shortages

• If government imposes a universal health care system, they may also intervene in pricing through the use of price controls. Critics of universal health care argue that existing reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid are too low, and effectively drive doctors away from serving these markets. If national health care initiatives are expanded, critics are concerned that it will cause more physicians to retire early, to restrict their practices or move to more profitable areas and specialties free from government intervention.