It’s becoming more apparent that the US healthcare system is at a disadvantage compared to other countries with universal healthcare. In the enlightenment of COVID-19, our country’s healthcare just isn’t built to withstand the pandemic’s financial impact on its citizens. The people who are impacted by this pandemic the most are lower-class citizens who just do not have the financial capability to afford private healthcare. Universal healthcare for some people can mean the difference between economic survival or destitution. So this brings up the question again: Is healthcare a right or a privilege, and if America is all about “Equal opportunity for all”, why haven’t we implemented the “Affordable Dream” or otherwise known as Universal Healthcare? In this blog post, I’ll analyze the best arguments made on the side that believes Medicare-for-all is the best solution to America’s growing problem for expensive healthcare.
As I searched for answers to my research question, I was expecting a policy such as universal healthcare to be more expensive to maintain than having our current healthcare system, but I was mistaken as I never considered the downstream effects of any policy or action. In my research, I found two articles, one explaining the pros and cons of universal health care and another by The World Health Organization which is an agency within the United Nations responsible for international public health with the objective of “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible health”, which therefore makes this organization more than credible to explain the pros of why healthcare should be universal, and why it should be a right.
In a nonpartisan Britannica article, ProCon focuses on why all Americans should have the right to healthcare while also arguing what could go wrong. ProCon opens the argument by explaining how the founding documents of the United States stated how all men have “unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” which means that having healthcare as a right is needed to preserve life and pursue happiness. Having healthcare is a part of pursuing happiness, as having a healthy quality of life along with your friends and loved ones is one of the many unalienable rights all people have. The government should support free healthcare because, as part of efforts to promote the general welfare, healthcare is a legitimate function of the government. Another thing ProCon mentions is that by instituting a right to health care, we could, as a result, lower the cost of health care in the US. ProCon states how the total spending for health care in the country could be “lowered by up to $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years due to lowered administrative and prescription drug costs”. Some examples of lowered costs in health care are seen in other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom, having 47% and 42% of what the US did per capita respectively.
In the second article, the World Health Organization posed universal healthcare as a life or death situation, as those without any form of coverage while facing the expectancy of untreated sickness for themselves and compromising the health and futures of their children. As a result, WHO suggested that everyone should be able to have access to a full range of health services such as “promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care”. It was also imperative that these health services be of good quality as it’s no use having an inaccurate scan or an untrained healthcare worker. WHO also explained the health, economic, and political benefits if everyone were to have access to these health services. The most important aspect of universal healthcare was its quality and allowing those who cannot afford healthcare for themselves to have access to it. “Niger for example has seen a 5.1% reduction in infant mortality from 226 deaths per 1000 live births in 2000 to 128 in 2009”. In addition, pregnant women no longer need to go through the process alone as they can now seek healthcare to have proper nutrition and welfare. WHO also mentions the economic benefit similar to the previous source about how families who have the protection of universal healthcare are better off financially and allow less spending downstream and allows spending in other parts of the country’s economy, promoting economic growth overall. WHO then recognizes the political benefits of universal healthcare as politicians who promote progress towards it will generally have the majority vote in a country. “For example in 2004, the Canadian public voted in a national poll for greatest Canadian and chose the architect of their UHC reforms, Tommy Douglas”.
After analyzing these arguments, I’ve discovered a different viewpoint on healthcare on why it should be a right and reflected on the reasoning to why it still was not implemented in America yet. However, there might be a reason the United States is remaining in a private healthcare system despite all the positive benefits it could provide the country in health, economy, and politics. I will be discussing the other side of the argument in my next blog post on the matter.