Healthcare is a complicated thing, but there are lots of things that need to be addressed. There is controversy about whether healthcare is a right, responsibility, or a privilege. This essay is going to explain examples of each. The word right can be defined simply as “something to which one has a just claim” (merriam-webster.com). According to the online legal dictionary, the word privilege is defined as “a special benefit, exemption from a duty, or immunity from penalty, given to a particular person, a group or a class of people”. Google dictionary describes responsibility as “The state or fact of being accountable or to blame for something”, or “The state or fact of having a duty to deal with something.” Healthcare as a right: According to Harry A. Sultz and Kristina M. Young, the authors of our textbook Health Care USA, medical care in the United States is a $2.5 Trillion industry (xvii). This industry is so large that “the U.S. health care system is the world’s eighth largest economy, second to that of France, and is larger than the total economy of Italy” (Sultz and Young xvii). We can say that citizens of the United States just claim to have healthcare (Linkins). The research shows that President Obama stated “I think it should be a right for every person” …show more content…
This then feeds employees with an incentive to eat healthier and live healthier lives so it doesn’t cost the employers as much money for insurance for their company or organization. On the other hand, it also has problems with providing incentives that have been concerned with holding employees responsible for their own health is a violation of individual rights and can be against those who aren’t as healthy (Pearson and Lieber
The U.S. spending on health care is an outlier compared to other industrialized countries. On an individual basis heath care in the U.S is approximately double what other industrialized countries spend. On a total spend basis, the $3 trillion currently consumed in this sector represents the world’s fifth-largest economy. This high spending on healthcare is unsustainable in the long term. Businesses, individual consumers, and the government are consequently not insulated from the shrinking economic growth due to the ramifications of the high healthcare costs. In a global competitive market the U.S. business will lag behind other industrialized countries unless these high healthcare costs are curtailed. In addition, individuals, even those with insurance face the grim prospect of bankruptcy due to the high cost of care.
Due to the fact that I want to become a healthcare administrator in the future, this book is an incredible resource. The United States healthcare system is a complete and total disaster; it has become the driver of social and economic instability for most American families. Insurance companies, pharmaceutical corporations and government bureaucrats filling their pockets from America’s largest, most dysfunctional industry. In 2004, the USA spent $3 trillion on healthcare, more "than the next ten biggest spenders combined: Japan, Germany, France, China, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain, and Australia" (Brill, p. 4). As Brill details, the healthcare system is dysfunctional because of the influence of the pharmaceutical, hospital and medical lobbies who influence decisions made by officials in the government (Brill,
Despite the established health care facilities in the United States, most citizens do not have access to proper medical care. We must appreciate from the very onset that a healthy and strong nation must have a proper health care system. Such a health system should be available and affordable to all. The cost of health services is high. In fact, the ...
Niles, N. J. (2011). Basics of the U.S. health care system. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Our healthcare system has developed into a burden for most people and has terrible consequences for others. It consists of everyone paying for healthcare as a whole, instead of people paying for themselves. This system of healthcare has burdened the people who take care of themselves and have money, but extends the life of people who do not take care of themselves and live in poverty. This is not pleasant for the one’s who decided to go to school and make well over minimum wage. In turn, they are the individuals who end up paying for the people who decided to make bad decisions in their life that put them in the minimum wage position. Clearly, laws regulate the insurance companies but these regulations do not make any sense to many. Balko explains that, “More and m...
Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.
These are all points raised in an article published by healthcare.procon.com titled “Should All Americans Have the Right (Be Entitled) to Health Care?” last updated on 12/3/2014 and what will be addressed in the following
According to Webster’s dictionary, healthcare is defined as efforts made to maintain or restore physical, mental, or emotional well-being especially by trained and licensed professionals. The United States is one of the only developed countries that does not guarantee universal healthcare coverage (“Right to Health Care”). Healthcare is often a subject of debate in the United States, especially in the world of politics. Specifically, if healthcare should be a right of all Americans or if it just a luxury for the affluent members of society. Many citizens of the United States are unable to afford healthcare, and the citizens that do have healthcare are often times still burden by medical bills not covered
The U.S. healthcare system is very complex in structure hence it can be appraised with diverse perspectives. From one viewpoint it is described as the most unparalleled health care system in the world, what with the cutting-edge medical technology, the high quality human resources, and the constantly-modernized facilities that are symbolic of the system. This is in addition to the proliferation of innovations aimed at increasing life expectancy and enhancing the quality of life as well as diagnostic and treatment options. At the other extreme are the fair criticisms of the system as being fragmented, inefficient and costly. What are the problems with the U.S. healthcare system? These are the questions this opinion paper tries to propound.
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
...ing in the U.S. The Affordable Care Act expands the affordability, quality, and availability of private and public health insurance through consumer protections, regulations, subsidies, taxes, insurance exchanges, and other reforms. I believe mandatory health coverage is a step in the right direction towards a future with universal health care. Although Obamacare may help americans to better afford quality health insurance, it is not a national healthcare program provided to the U.S citizens free of cost. The fact that citizens will be forced to purchase ObamaCare plans or be fined or penalized on their taxes for not doing so, further suggests that healthcare today is a priviledge not a right.
People, however, often confuse what type of right it is. There are several distinct types of rights including: claim, legal, statutory, moral and political. Claim and legal rights are often paired, a claim right relies on others to fulfill duties given to them and are upheld to this by a legal body (Munson, 2012, p. 690). A statutory right are claim rights that are explicitly stated in law (Munson, 2012, p. 690). Healthcare cannot possibly belong in one of these categories, because it is not reliant on other people to fulfill a duty if one gets sick, it does not make sense for someone to be legally forced to assist if one falls ill. Possibly the moral or political rights could encompass healthcare?
Among all the countries of the world, the U.S. health care system is the most expensive. The country spends on health care more GDP per capita than other countries (Khazan, 2014). Over the past few decades, the costs in the United States on the health system are growing because of the introduction of state programs. There are many differences between the U.S. healthcare system that is preliminary based on private sector and insurance and other countries’ systems, which are organized around government funding.
The healthcare industry is the fastest growing industry in the U.S. economy. Guaranteed success in this industry stems from the many positions developed by U.S. government agencies. Healthcare power is shared among federal and state governments to allow proper distribution of regulation throughout the United States. The need for healthcare will only become greater so it is important for everyone to be educated on who, and what, keep America’s health industry well run.
Should healthcare be a right or a privilege? When Pay for Performance is enacted in Allegheny County’s healthcare systems, high-risk and disadvantaged communities will have their access to appropriate care limited. Pay for performance is a payment process for hospitals that offers financial privileges to medical providers in order to improve quality and efficiency of treatment.