Health Care Right or Privilege?

Leonard Peikoff believes that national healthcare is unethical and tramples on the individual “negative” rights of hard-working Americans. He makes a point of clearly defining what our “negative” rights are; they are our ‘unalienable, individual rights’ as Americans, in the context in which it was written in the Declaration of Independence, the right to “life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness”. According to Peikoff, “…all legitimate rights have one thing in common they are rights to action, not to rewards from other people.” (Peikoff 2); it is this right to action (pursuit) which Peikoff attributes to the success

“For decades in this country we have accepted the barbaric consequences of a profit-driven health care system that bullies and denies us basic freedoms. Therefore, we are not free” (Redmond 76). Since Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, health care has been the topic of many heated political conversation. At the root of that discussion is one underlying question: is health care a moral right? Helen Redmond takes the stance that “Access to Health Care Is a Human Right”. Redmond states five different examples of why health care is a human right. In addition to giving statistics on why we need to reform health care, Redmond give us examples of real Americans who have struggled with the big bully know as the greedy healthcare providers. Leonard Peikoff takes the the opposite view by claiming that “Health Care Is Not a Right”. Peikoff first dissects the concept of morality and how it is explained in the Declaration of Independence. He then goes further to state that giving health care for free to other is actually violating the rights of the doctors that treat them. I believe that Helen Redmond made the best argument.

Americans seem to be split on whether health care should be mandatory and all Americans must have it or it is optional and Americans can choose to have or not have it. Personally, I think the government should provide some type of assistance for those less fortunate to be able to access doctors, hospitals, and pharmacy’s if they need it, just not at the amount we are doing it now. For those who make above a certain income, they should be responsible for their own health insurance and go through private companies to obtain it. There is definitely a fine line to this issue and this has been an ongoing debate for quite some time and will continue to

Everyone knows that right now it is a right to have healthcare. However, I believe that it should go back to a privilege. The reasons why I believe it should go back to a privilege is because I can not afford healthcare right now. I have no healthcare insurance which I am fine without but I will be penalized and fined every year because everyone must have healthcare insurance. I believe that if a person wants healthcare that person will get it no matter what the cost is. Being forced to pay for healthcare in my opinion is unnecessary because I know I will never go to the hospital unless I am dying or have a broken bone.

The human right to health care means that everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of medical services which also include sanitation, adequate food, decent housing, healthy working conditions, and a clean environment. It should guarantee a system of health protection. Which demonstrates why everyone has the right to health care. For example, according to Forbes, a young boy named Deandre who was 7, died of a toothache because he did not get good treatment because his health care was not good. He was on Medicaid, America’s government-run health care program for the poor, so he never received proper dental care. The story shows why the US should have better access to health care because more people can die from having poor health care and do not obtain treatment fast or great.

Through hard work anyone should be able to provide health care for themselves and their families much like how they must be able to access other basic necessities such as food and shelter. The right to life does not necessarily include medical care. The view is that persons who live destructive lives and put themselves in unnecessary dangers should not have their medical bills paid for by taxpayers’ money. Why should we be responsible for other’s recklessness? In addition to these arguments, there is also the belief that a health care system that is based on market economies would increase competition and therefore actually lower prices like for any other product or service. If history is put into perspective, medical technology has advanced to the point where people are kept alive beyond their natural capability and this puts an additional strain on the system.

In my opinion, healthcare services should be provided to Americans in the same fashion that public education services are. In simplest terms, Americans pay income, property, and sales taxes which go toward funding for public schools. In return for paying these taxes, American children have the opportunity to receive an education and to use the knowledge gained from experiences in the classroom to teach others or to contribute positively to society. I believe that healthcare services should be provided in a similar fashion, so that Americans pay taxes to provide for the healthcare services necessary for Americans to live plentiful lives. While education is not a right enumerated in the Constitution of the United States, many Americans would

Healthcare is a wonderful entity to have in our country, but it does not come without confusion or disagreements. The idea of healthcare has been in our country longer than one might expect. In the early 1900s, Theodore Roosevelt believed that the United States needed a health insurance because a country could not stand tall with citizens who were ill and needed treatment. The 1920s marked the beginning of the expansion of healthcare, making it more accessible to the population. In the late 1950s, a congressman by the name of Aime Forand proposed Medicare, a solution to help the elderly pay for and receive the necessary health treatments they needed. More recently, in the 1990s, healthcare became increasingly more expensive; therefore, in 2010

The question of whether healthcare is a right or a privilege in the United States becomes irrelevant when one bothers to consider that actual reality of the situation. As evidenced by the fact that hospitals cannot deny individuals emergency care, the United States already treats healthcare as if it is a right, albeit a fairly poorly-protected one. With this in mind, the real question becomes how this bare minimum of respect for the importance of healthcare affects the healthcare industry as a whole, and if there is room for improvement. Upon examining the data, it becomes clear that the somewhat schizophrenic approach of the United States, which is to demand free emergency care while denying accompanying free preventative care, has led to runaway costs and diminishing levels of care. The American healthcare system is in a state of crisis, but thankfully there are still some options left. By comparing the state of the American healthcare system with other developed countries that are able to provide better quality of care for a lower price, it becomes clear that the United States need some bare minimum of publicly-funded healthcare if it ever hopes to improve its healthcare system before it collapses under its own tidal wave of costs.

In his article “Health care: It’s a right, not a privilege”, Reginald Williams argues that in the united states health care should be universal. Williams supports his argument by saying that health care does not guarantee people to see a doctor, other countries see health care as a right when in the U.S. people think it’s a privilege, and it has been reserved for people who can afford

Health care is a basic human right every citizen in the United States should receive and be granted no matter the circumstance.

Unfortunately in the United States (U.S.) health care is not a basic right that all have. While the U.S. is considered one of the richest nations in the world and spends more on health care than other countries throughout the world, access and affordability to health care continues to be an issue (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2017). There continues to be vulnerable and marginalized populations who are less likely to obtain health care in the U.S. due to cost or lack of insurance coverage. Generally speaking in the U.S. our health care is a privilege, not a right. Individuals must either purchase health insurance or pay for the services they receive in the event that they utilize the health care system. The Center for Economic and Social

Universal Health Care Coverage is the guarantee to every citizen of a certain country with health care services. While some say it will benefit the people of the United States, others argue that it would be a great disservice to the country. In the past, “Progressives” have tried modernization through health for all, but differences such as anti-communism, anti-socialism, ideological differences, the entrepreneurial character os America medicine and dependence has kept the people from making any change. It is true that the constitution states that a man is entitled to his unalienable rights, however, it does not specify that free healthcare is considered among those rights.

Healthcare is not an individual right in is considered a privilege. Especially for those individuals who can afford to pay the cost for having healthcare. Although the Affordable Care Act has made it possible for more people to have heath care in the United States. There are still many more that cannot afford the cost of the healthcare due to some of the mandates that have been put in place. So again I would say that heath care is not an individual right but it should be an individual right to all. According to Bernie Sanders, US Senator (Independent VT) in the "Issues: Medicare for All" section of his website (accessed Feb. 10, 2017), wrote: That “healthcare should be seen as a right not a privilege. That every individual in this country should have access to healthcare in spite of their income. A system that not only work for millionaires and billionaires but for everyone” (2017). Ologunde, Gunarajasingam (2013) Talks about a system that distributes healthcare unevenly, based on numerous factors other than necessity, raises a lot of questions on how ethical the healthcare system. Especially when there are a lot of inequity where access to care exist,

Teri Reynolds once said that “It is hard to talk about a middle ground for something that is a fundamental right.” This country has no reason to compromise something that is in the U.S. Constitution and that was meant to be available for all U.S. citizens. Universal Healthcare is not a privilege; it is a right. “In the second half of the 19th century, advances in biology and chemistry helped medical doctors better understand the human body, incorporating principles of modern science into the practice of medicine. Sanitation prevented infection, more effective treatments for diseases and injuries were developed, and surgical techniques were refined.” (Shultz and Shoven). Doctors and scientists worked hard to develop certain skills for which the citizens of the U.S. could be more cared for. “Medical schools did not exist at this time, and medical training largely consisted of working as an apprentice to an existing practitioner. People who got sick generally paid out of pocket for their medical treatments, but costs were quite low, perhaps because results were often negative.” (Shultz and Shoven). In all the research that the doctors and scientists had done, there came trial and error. As this was a concern for peoples’ well-being, healthcare services should have been free as it should be now. “In 1847 the American Medical Association (AMA) was founded to create professional standards for doctors and set minimum educational requirements. Medical colleges were established,