While most countries around the world have some form of universal national health care system, the United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, does not. There are much more benefits to the U.S. adopting a dorm of national health care system than to keep its current system, which has proved to be unnecessarily expensive, complicated, and overall inefficient.
Reese, Philip. Public Agenda Foundation. The Health Care Crisis: Containing Costs, Expanding Coverage. New York: McGraw, 2002.
Millions of Americans are without health insurance in the United States due to many factors such as unemployment, the cost of insurance and insurance companies denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions. The United States does not provide health care to its citizens the way the rest of the industrialized world does. Instead of providing coverage for all it institutes market-based options, in which some receive coverage from their place of employment, another options are purchasing individual plans and some can obtain coverage through public programs like Medicaid. The United States is the only westernized industrial nation without a universal health care system.
The facts bear out the conclusion that the way healthcare in this country is distributed is flawed. It causes us to lose money, productivity, and unjustly leaves too many people struggling for what Thomas Jefferson realized was fundamental. Among industrialized countries, America holds the unique position of not having any form of universal health care. This should lead Americans to ask why the health of its citizens is “less equal” than the health of a European.
In the United States, many would believe that all individuals have a right to health care. These citizens believe that everyone should have access to health care and that everyone should have an equal opportunity to get the care they need for themselves and their family. The United States of America has been built with many documents that can be interpreted to support the belief that health care should be a right for everyone.
The people of the United States have been suffering from a number of serious issues, all related to health care: millions go uninsured every year, health care is too expensive, and the quality of care is poor, especially for the price. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obama Care, began addressing these issues. The ACA is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The law was enacted with the goals of increasing the quality and affordability of health insurance, lowering the uninsured rate by expanding public and private insurance coverage, and reducing the costs of healthcare for individuals and the government. Although several of the act’s promises have not come into effect yet, it has managed to extend healthcare to the repetitively uninsured. While many of the accomplishments that the act has already made, and aims to make, are no small feat, there are still issues within the policies and procedures. For example, Obama Care boasts that it is a universal healthcare system. However, it is unlike any other in the world, and is technically forced on citizens in a variety of ways. It has been debated, that for that reason, the new law may come into violation of several human rights. Another significant issue with the ACA regards a cap on citizen’s out-of-pocket expenses, and the fact that the administration decided to delay making a definitive decision, potentially costing many American’s unprecedented medical fees.
In the United States of America, people view health care as a product to be bought and sold. Therefore, anyone who could not avail the health care would not have any coverage. Without any form of health care, someone could not achieve their outstanding potential when sick. United States has spent so much money in trying to make this country as one of the best in the world. There is economic growth if the health of the citizenry is safeguarded. In this nation that is known for its wealth, it is very ironic to find people without proper insurance due to high cost and therefore are denied health care (Bergen, Fultz, Kessie, & Osburn, 2015). Society is denying them the right to live. Butts & Rich (2005) stated that in order to achieve social
The just delivery of health care falls into a pattern of rights. Medicaid and the US political view aside, the right to health care is a basic human right whose only requirement is that someone be a human being regardless of their gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic class. That is, the right is a non-relational right that every human needs irrespective of differences in individual goals (Lomasky, 1981). As a positive right, it is the obligation of others to provide for one’s health needs, within limits. In satisfying the right to health care, society contributes toward the fulfillment of the right for the individual. In Medicaid for example, the right is supported through taxation, among other mechanisms and delivered by a
Dorrien, Gary. "Treating Health Care as a Human Right Would Reduce Health Care Costs." Universal Health Care. Ed. Susan C. Hunnicutt. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Health Care Fix (The Role of Public Option)." Christian Century (14 July 2009). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
The United States is the largest developed nation in the world that does not guarantee health coverage for its citizens. Among the nations offering guaranteed healthcare coverage or single-payer systems are: Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Japan, Italy, Ireland, Germany, France and Canada. Among these countries the average spending for healthcare is $4,500 per person while the United States on average spends $7,000 per person. In a 2007 study, when compared with 27 high-income democra...
Harris, Nancy., Glassman, Bruce., Szumski, Bonnie., Cothran, Helen. Does the United States Need a National Health Insurance Policy?. Michigan: Thomas Gale. 2006.
Weijer, C., Skelton, A., & Brennan, S. (2013). Bioethics in Canada. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford
People’s lives should not be debated on behind closed doors. There are understandably a lot of factors the general public does not understand about the logistics of providing exceptional universal healthcare without some negatives, but the need for people not to go bankrupt or fear that they won’t get adequate treatment is detrimental to their mental and physical health. Mary, Theodore, Jennifer, and George in The New England Journal of Medicine (2015) went so far as to suggest that there is no mention in the constitution about “health” or “heath care” although looking deeper a larger picture emerges. Both sides have valid points and negatives, but the end goal should always be the patient and when the patient cannot get adequate care due to finances then something needs to be
In recent years, the number of Americans who are uninsured has reached over 45 million citizens, with millions more who only have the very basic of insurance, effectively under insured. With the growing budget cuts to medicaid and the decreasing amount of employers cutting back on their health insurance options, more and more americans are put into positions with poor health care or no access to it at all. At the heart of the issue stems two roots, one concerning the morality of universal health care and the other concerning the economic effects. Many believe that health care reform at a national level is impossible or impractical, and so for too long now our citizens have stood by as our flawed health-care system has transformed into an unfixable mess. The good that universal healthcare would bring to our nation far outweighs the bad, however, so, sooner rather than later, it is important for us to strive towards a society where all people have access to healthcare.
More than one-third of Americans who are between the ages of nineteen and twenty-four are uninsured. This is because most insurance is provided through a person’s job, and entry-level jobs which isn 't available for all young students. In addition, healthcare costs are currently rising faster than inflation, which means that salary increases cannot compensate for the higher prices of health care. Government regulation and a universal system could help keep costs affordable. A universal system would guarantee that everyone could receive health care regardless of preexisting conditions. Consequently, more people would be able to seek preventative services, like checkups, to maintain good health and detect problems early. Too frequently, people avoid taking preventative health measures until something is too late because of how expensive it is. While there 's a debate over how the U.S. should pay for a universal healthcare system, a good idea is to study the ways several other countries have successfully implemented such a system. Europe has a system in which all residents pay into a common fund that creates a pool of money and provides benefits to all. We must figure out a way to effectively adopt a universal healthcare system that provides care to all