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Is Health Care a Right or a Privilege? Essay

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A sensitive topic in the United States today revolves around the issue of healthcare. Is health care a basic human right or is it just a privilege to those who are able to afford it? Health care in the United States is in desperate need of reform. The Affordable Care Act takes that stance that health care is in fact a basic human right and that everyone should have health insurance. When the term “basic human rights” is used, most people think of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This doesn’t necessarily mean that people should be forced to sustain others’ lives, or that they have the responsibility to make others happy because they have a “right” to pursue happiness. You are born with these basics rights that no …show more content…

After years of schooling and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, doctors aren’t even able to work on their own terms. “Consumers allegedly have a “right” to what health care providers provide, a “right” to say what will be provided, when, and at what price” (Salsman 2012). Consumers shouldn’t have a “right” to what is provided to them or how much it costs. The government controls pricing and controls who can receive care and what kind. It’s not right that those who are actually working in the medical profession that they have lost control of their businesses.
Sanjay Sanghoee wrote an article for The Huffington Post stating, “The reason that Americans are so divided on this issue is that the right to good health (which can only be ensured through guaranteed health care) is not mentioned in any of our founding documents” (Sanghoee 2013). The fact that the “right to good health” is not mentioned in any founding documents is because healthcare wasn’t an issue in 1776 when America first became a free country. Even if there were a developed healthcare system back then, it would be so different to the healthcare we have today. Amendments and rights have been added to the constitution, including the right to due process, and prohibiting search and seizure (Sanghoee 2013). If the right to health care was so important, it could have been added to the constitution as a right. Sanghoee also states that just because something isn’t directly mentioned in

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