In President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1944 State of the Union address, a list of proposed economic rights to which the president believed all Americans were entitled was enumerated in what is now popularly referred to as the “Economic Bill of Rights” (Roosevelt). Among the rights listed was “The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health,” (Ibid). Seventy-one years on, this proposed right is rather poorly guaranteed, if at all. Even after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the Census Bureau reported that 10.4% of the US population, approximately 33 million people, was uninsured throughout 2014, severely limiting their access to healthcare (Radnofsky). The United States ought to guarantee universal access to healthcare through a single-payer system because it is ethical and practical while alternative plans fail to provide sufficient benefit. The primary ethical issue of healthcare systems is whether healthcare should be treated as a right or a privilege. America’s founding documents provide the ethical basis for a system guaranteeing access to healthcare. The Declaration of Independence famously states that all people are granted the natural rights of “…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” A government that sought to protect these rights, especially the right to life and the pursuit of happiness, would logically have to guarantee healthcare to its citizens as good health is a prerequisite to these rights.
“When we debate health care policy, we seem to jump right to the issue of who should pay the bills, blowing past what should be the first question: Why exactly are the bills so high? (Sultz & Young 336)”. It’s no surprise for many Americas today to realize that the cost of healthcare and the cost of having insurance is on the rise. Many people wonder why something stressed as important for every individual to have access to, is so expensive and inaccessible for many. So, why is that something that should be accessible for anyone, is lacking this quality? Many people today lack health insurance coverage, because of the high cost for private insurance or because of the loss of employer-based health coverage. Many Americans during the last decade, especially during the years of economic recession and contraction no longer have access to job-based health care insurance coverage (Sultz & Young 290). As a reaction to the many uninsured individuals and to attempt to control short and long term costs, the government had implemented the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Currently the United States has the most expensive health care system in the world and some 45 million Americans are uninsured under the current health system, these numbers continues to grow. Using the theory of an Utilitarianism perspective and developing a single-payer system such as universal health care all Americans could enjoy equal access to quality health care. The single-payer system will provide tools to manage health spending more effectively and ensure health care for everyone. If the United States would follow the blueprint of other developed nations who have successfully implemented universal health care coverage it would protect citizens from high medical premiums, co-payments and give everyone access to equal health care. In the United States people go without health coverage, it is a problem that needs to be resolved, yet we remain one of the last developed countries to implement universal health care coverage. Despite efforts to enact polices for
The United States is the only remaining industrialized nation without some form of universal access to medical services (Light, 2002). As an industrialized nation, it is shameful to see so many people suffer on various levels due to inadequate access to appropriate health care (Rashford, 2007). Research will show that with equal access to healthcare for everyone in the United States, there would be much more preventative care and therefore the cost for treating chronic diseases could be greatly reduced. The New England Journal of Medicine states that they believe a requirement, in the United States, is broad access to wisely designed programs of health promotion, in which the concept of health promotion is expanded to include a goal of cost reduction. This expanded concept directly addresses the challenge of preventing illness as well as that of reducing health care costs (New England Journal of Medicine, 1993). Did you know that preventable illness makes up for approximately 70% of the burden of illness and the associated costs (New England Journal of Medicine, 1993). Many Americans feel that universal health care is not a role that the government should be involved in however; Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs have been shown to improve health for
The government would be the sole determiner of the number of medical professionals that could work.”( Creech, Mark H. “Universal Health Care Is Unbiblical. ) Is access to health care a human right, or a valued social good, or neither? In 2003 the Institute of Medicine published a report, Insuring America's Health, which contained five principles for evaluating various strategies for health care reform. The first principle, "the most basic and important," was that health care coverage should be universal. The idea that access to health care should be universal, however, has become one of the most hotly debated issues in the ongoing discussion of how to reform the U.S. healthcare system. In Opposing Viewpoints: Universal Health Care, authors explores the
Every single life on the surface of this earth has an equal right to existence. The life of an affluent American should not be worthier in the right to existence than that of a poor American. Neither should is the life of a bishop be more important than that of a Muslim child. Every life is sacred and equal. Without a healthy citizenry, no nation of people could fight enough to either demand for their freedom nor maintain the freedom that has been already gained. It is within that context that I declare that the right to an affordable healthcare is as sacrosanct as the right to be
As the world’s richest and most powerful nation, the United States sets itself apart from other countries on a range of issues. Some of these issues are worth celebrating, while others highlight how this country continues to lag other developed countries. No issue demonstrates this divide more clearly than our lack of universal healthcare. Touted as the best system in the world by supporters, when compared with other rich nations, we continue to spend more but have lower outcomes. The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, attempted to address many of the problems with the current system; however it does not go far enough. To further improve outcomes and lower costs we must establish a universal single-payer system.
It is highly visible that the United States lacks an affordable, universal health care plan. Compared to other countries America is lagging behind. The improvement of access to care has become of high importance to the betterment of society and the country’s health care outcome. This paper will describe the three major problems that exist in the United States health care. In addition, it will explore the proposed health care plans of two 2016 presidential candidates and the position they take in regards the big issues.
The debate on whether or not America should have universal healthcare has been raging on since the 20th century. During the past one hundred years, medicine has advanced and the cost of medicine and health care has increased rapidly, leaving almost thirty million people uninsured. With a number of people without insurance increases, so does the concern of this problem. However, most people believes that the government should play a role in people's health care and provide universal health care, while others strongly disagree.
In 2007, more than 45 million Americans did not have health care insurance. The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world without health care, and the debate about changing that has become a popular topic recently. The difference between the two sides is a difference in values; those for universal health care desire to see the government help others, and those who do not, wish that private companies be allowed to continue taking advantage of the status quo for profit. In this paper I will argue why the Government should put in place The Universal Healthcare Systems.
The human body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, lived in by God, and died for by Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:19, New International Version). The Bible teaches us that we should care for our body because it is a gift from God. In order to protect the human vessel, all persons should receive affordable health care of the highest quality. The policies and ethics of a nation play a major role in determining whether a government can provide said care (Nash et al., 2016). The Health Policy and Ethics class at Liberty University (NURS 5011) provided an excellent overview of how important the legislative and political process is to protecting the health of every citizen of the United States.
Another benefit associated with free health care system is that it preserves life as it ensures free treatment to the entire citizens despite their financial status. Apparently, the life of a human being is sacred and incomparable with any amount of money. It is unethical for an individual to die due to lack of finance. As stated by Obama, the United States is known to have the most skilled doctors and healthcare facilities in the world (526). Ironically, the two third of the Americans have no access to health insurance cover, meaning, they cannot afford to get the health services from the best doctors and the best facilities in the country. To protect life and to avoid unnecessary deaths of the innocent citizens, free access to medical services should be a distinct system to be employed in the United States of America.
In 1993, the Clinton administration proposed a far-reaching health-care reform bill called the Health Security Act. This plan would have guaranteed health insurance to every American. This proposition did not get broad consumer support, and Congress scuttled it, saying it was too expensive, too bureaucratic, and too intrusive. Despite defeat of that bill, many Americans are still committed to achieving universal coverage for all Americans. Many universal health care advocates favor a national health insurance plan funded by the government. The majority of industrialized nations have such health care systems, sometimes called “socialized medicine.” However, critics say that the United States cannot afford a national health care system. Moreover, most national health care plans are inferior to the best of our health plans. Switching to a government-funded system would destroy what is good about the present system.
In a survey by Lake Snell Perry Mermin ranking people’s personal economic worries five percent picked losing their job, nine percent rising gas prices, twelve percent higher taxes, fourteen percent a secure retirement, eighteen percent wages not keeping up with costs, and twenty-seven percent picked rising health care costs as their chief economic worry (Teixeira, 2005). With the extremely high and unaffordable costs of health care in America, it comes as no surprise that more than half of the country is on board with a single-payer health care system. A new national survey done by Pew Research Center reveals that the majority of Americans believe it is the federal government’s responsibility to provide health care to all Americans. “Currently, sixty percent say the federal government is responsible for ensuring health care
The idea of national healthcare is one of good intention, but also carries unintended burdens that rest squarely on the shoulders of middle class America. Healthcare for all is a dream in and of its own, thought up by the far left politicians of the modern era, that provides insurance to everybody who requires it, but still keeps healthcare financially out of reach for many. Providing ultra- low cost health insurance to low income Americans has driven up deductibles while keeping monthly premiums low for the middle class to create the guise of affordability, when in reality it has further widened the gap between patient and care. A national healthcare policy is a piteous choice as the healthcare platform for the United States
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.