Exploring what works, what doesn’t, and why.
Healthcare is a human right – but not in the United States
- Share on LinkedIn
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Share on WhatsApp
- Share through Email
The Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson in June is just the latest blow to health rights in the United States. National medical associations in the U.S. agree that abortion is essential to reproductive healthcare. So why would abortion not be protected as such? Because the U.S. does not, and never has, protected a right to health.
Good health is the foundation of a person’s life and liberty. Injury and disease are always disruptive, and sometimes crippling. We might have to stop working, cancel plans, quarantine, hire help, and in cases of long-term disability, build whole new support systems to accommodate a new normal.
The U.S. remains the only high-income nation in the world without universal access to healthcare. However, the U.S. has signed and ratified one of the most widely adopted international treaties that includes the duty to protect the right to life. Under international law, the right to life simply means that humans have a right to live, and that nobody can try to kill another. Healthcare, the United Nations says, is an essential part of that duty. In 2018, the U.N. Committee on Civil and Political Rights said the right to life cannot exist without equal access to affordable healthcare services (including in prisons), mental health services, and notably, access to abortion. The U.N. committee mentioned health more than a dozen times in its statement on the right to life.
Sign up for Harvard Public Health
Delivered to your inbox weekly.
- Email address By clicking “Subscribe,” you agree to receive email communications from Harvard Public Health.
- Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
The bottom line is: the U.S. can’t claim to protect life if it fails to protect health. And it has consistently failed on all three of the U.N.’s measures— the latest being access to abortion.
In the U.S., our debates around healthcare, and especially abortion, are hampered by a lack of right to health. Instead, the Supreme Court in 1973 protected access to abortion through the rights to privacy and due process, not health. Privacy is mentioned only twice by the U.N. committee commentary on the right to life.
Since Dobbs, several state legislatures have declared it fair game to criminalize abortion procedures even in cases where pregnancy threatens maternal health or life. Despite ample evidence that restrictive abortion laws lead to spikes in maternal mortality and morbidity—core public health indicators—the Court prior to the Dobb’s decision has defended abortion as merely a matter of privacy, not health or life. We know this is a myth. Abortion is deeply tied to the ability to stay healthy and in some cases, alive.
Regardless, our political parties remain deeply polarized on access to healthcare, including abortion. But lawmakers should know there is historical backing in the U.S. for elevating a right to health. None other than U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt, first proposed healthcare as a human right in his State of the Union address in 1944, as part of his ‘Second Bill of Rights.’ His list featured aspirational economic and social guarantees to the American people, like the right to a decent home and, of course, the right to adequate medical care.
Eleanor Roosevelt later took the Second Bill of Rights to the U.N., where it contributed to the right to health being included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The right to health is now accepted international law, and is part of numerous treaties, none of which the U.S. Senate has seen fit to ratify. The U.S. conservative movement has historically declared itself averse to adopting rights that might expand government function and responsibility. In contrast, state legislatures in red states are keen to expand government responsibility when it comes to abortion. The conservative movement condemns government interference in the delivery of healthcare—except when it comes to reproductive health. The American Medical Association has called abortion bans a “direct attack” on medicine, and a “brazen violation of patients’ rights to evidence-based reproductive health services.”
Excepting access to abortion, U.S. lawmakers have largely left healthcare to the markets, rather than government. True, the government funds programs like Medicaid and Medicare but these programs vary significantly in quality and access by state, falling far short of providing fair, equitable, universal access to good healthcare.
The only two places where the U.S. government accepts some responsibility for the provision of healthcare are 1) in prisons and mental health facilities; and 2) in the military. While healthcare services in the U.S. prison system are notoriously deficient, they nevertheless exist and are recognized as an entitlement, underpinning the right to life. As an example, in 2005 a federal court seized control of the failing healthcare system in California’s Department of Corrections citing preventable deaths. In the military, free healthcare is an entitlement, and the quality of that care is deemed good enough even for the U.S. president.
So why doesn’t everyone in the U.S. have the same rights?
It is an uphill battle in a country that sees health and healthcare as a private matter for markets and individuals to navigate. But if we want to improve public health in the U.S. we need to start legislating healthcare as a right—and recognize that achieving the highest possible standards of public health is a legitimate government function.
photo: Tony Gutierrez / AP Photo
More in Equity
When death doesn’t count
Periods and patriarchy
For Black Americans, homeownership can mean better health
- Read the Journal
- Submit an Article
Free Healthcare in the United States: A Possible Solution to Public Health Disparities
Nov 23, 2020 | Author Hala Atassi , Public Health Policy
Access to healthcare is one of the remarkable indicators that defines the quality of people’s lives. Despite the thousands of advanced technologies and countless healthcare clinics and hospitals, many people still cannot afford healthcare or health insurance. This has been a global concern for years, which many countries have resolved. However, the United States has yet to significantly progress towards making healthcare more accessible to low-income communities. There are many solutions to this problem that can be implemented today, upon which millions of suffering Americans depend.
Some studies have shown over the years that expensive health care is due to the high cost of defensive medicine, or in other words, physicians ordering expensive tests that may be unnecessary, as a way to deflect legal responsibility from themselves. Deviating from defensive medicine in the healthcare industry might impact physicians economically, but more importantly, it will help achieve affordable healthcare.
Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act of 2010) is one program that focuses on extending healthcare to Americans and reducing public health disparities. This program lays down a foundation that people under the age of 26 will receive accessible care from their parent or guardian’s health care plans. Afterward, they must pay for their health care plan. Also, the program stipulates that the government provides free healthcare to retired adults from age 55 to 64, to avoid any insurance plan complications. Essentially, Obamacare seeks to expand access to healthcare care, regardless of the scale of one’s medical diagnosis, to ultimately save lives that would have been lost due to the inability to pay expensive medical bills.
Easier access to healthcare will result in a healthier nation. The healthcare system is one of the most important components in life, as the United States’ economy cannot be fully efficient and benefit all people until everyone can access quality, affordable healthcare. Free healthcare (or at least cheaper healthcare) would be the most effective system for America, which other countries like Switzerland and Singapore have demonstrated. The money spent by citizens on their healthcare could be redirected to other social support systems in America, like expanding access to nutritious foods as well. Although free healthcare has many perks, it also has disadvantages. Most notably, overloading health services with a large number of patients would overwhelm already busy healthcare systems. Patients may overuse the perk of free healthcare, leaving not taxpayers to suffer, but rather medical professionals and healthcare systems. Even so, the perceptible advantages of affordable healthcare outweigh the disadvantages. As it is, years of attempts to ameliorate the United States healthcare system have failed the American people, and the situation remains devastating and life-threatening for low-income communities. There should be no debate though as to whether America needs to redesign the public health system, as healthcare is a human right, and nobody should be dying because they cannot afford to live, especially when the government has the economic means to take care of them.
Bibliography:
Gerisch, Mary. “Health Care As a Human Right.” American Bar Association , www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/the-state-of-healthcare-in-the-united-states/health-care-as-a-human-right/.
“Free Health Care Policies.” World Health Organization , World Health Organization, 2020, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/free-health-care-policies.
Gologorsky, Beverly. “Health Care in the US Should Be Affordable and Accessible.” The Nation , 9 May 2019, www.thenation.com/article/archive/tom-dispatch-health-care-should-be-affordable-and-accessible/.
Luhby, Tami. “Here’s How Obamacare Has Changed America.” CNN , Cable News Network, 8 July 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/07/08/politics/obamacare-how-it-has-changed-america/index.html.
Recent Posts
- Zero-Covid: A Crisis in Shanghai
- Treatments for Fetal Rh Anemia
- Health Inequity and Racial Disparities in Covid-19, Gun Violence, and HIV/AIDS Cases
- Abortion Rights Are up in the Air Again: It’s All on the Line in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
- The History of Racial Disparities and Discrimination in the U.S. Healthcare System
Argumentative Essay on Why Healthcare Should Be Free
Back in February of 2018, a woman named Marlena Wilzbach was driving her kids home from school, when a truck driver ran a red light and hit them head on. Unfortunately, Marlena took most of the impact which caused her severe spinal injury and would need invasive back surgery if she wanted a chance at gaining normal mobility again. There was only one problem though, and that was the price tag attached to this surgery which came to a grand total of $300,000. Due to her husband being self-employed, they had no health insurance and would therefore need to sell their house they created all their memories in if they wanted a chance at paying off this massive amount of debt. In other industrialized economies, you rarely see this happening if at all, which is why healthcare should be free because no one should have to go bankrupt from an injury or illness, and people would address their health issues much earlier on.
Marlena’s situation is but one of many cases that happen in the US regarding the healthcare system. Back in 2019, a woman of West Palm Beach Florida who was diagnosed with cancer, had no other choice but to file for bankruptcy after her medical expenses overwhelmed her despite having health insurance. She stated that her insurance only covered the bed because the hospital was out of network and everything else such as the actual treatment, she was sadly charged for. No one can predict when they’ll fall victim to an illness such as the likes of cancer and or be subjected to serious injuries which is why when these things do happen, no one should have to think to themselves, “Can I afford this?”. This single question is why many people just choose to walk off their injury or wait until the disease is “bad enough” to the point they have no other choice but to go seek treatment which brings up another reason why healthcare should be free.
The final reason why healthcare should be free is because people would take care of their health issues when they’re minor. A December 2019 poll, shows that a quarter of the American population have either delayed, or know someone who has delayed medical treatment for an illness due to how much it would cost them. One example of this statistic is a woman named Susan Finley who called in sick because she had to recover from pneumonia and accidentally took off a day extra than what was permitted by Walmart’s attendance policy. Due to this “violation”, she was laid off and stripped of her health insurance which caused her to hold off on seeing a doctor, fearing that it would cost too much and as a result, passed away 3 months later. More than 26,000 Americans die from lack of health insurance because they don’t want their family or theirselves to deal with the burden of piled up medical bills which causes them to die from preventable diseases such as pneumonia.
Some may say free healthcare would be a bad thing because no one should have to pay for someone else’s healthcare, but looking at it from a different perspective, shows that this would be the better option. Not only is it cheaper, but it also benefits you and your family because they wouldn’t have to hold off on a preventable disease or worry about how much their back surgery would cost during the aftermath of a car crash. In addition, it’s not just you contributing to the system, but everyone else is doing the same thing which is paying for your healthcare as well in a sense which prevents you from being the person worrying about the cost for a doctor's visit. There will be people out there that do ruin their health on purpose by either smoking or drinking, but why should people who randomly end up with a serious disease be stripped of their basic human right because a chronic smoker would “abuse” the system?
In conclusion, healthcare should be free because no one should have to worry about the cost of an injury or illness and less people would die from preventable diseases. The current healthcare system that’s put into place, is purely a for-profit system that only benefits those lucky enough to have good insurance or the ultra rich of this country. Free healthcare may not be perfect like some think it is, but it would significantly be a better option than what’s in place now. It’s time we stop insurance companies from putting a price tag on a basic human right and go out and vote for the people who also agree that healthcare should be accessible to everyone regardless of race, gender, and income.
Related Samples
- Personal Narrative Essay: Recovery From Injury
- Are People Too Dependent on Technology? Essay Example
- Sugar Negatively Affects Teens (Free Essay Example)
- Does Social Media Make People Lonely
- Personal Narrative Essay: Graduation
- Risks and Benefits of Children Vaccination Essay Example
- Essay Sample on Ways To Get Rich
- My Happy Place Essay Example
- Recipe of a Good Friend Essay Example
- Essay on Mental Health Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin
Didn't find the perfect sample?
You can order a custom paper by our expert writers
A business journal from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Knowledge at Wharton Podcast
Does the u.s. need universal health care, december 8, 2020 • 11 min listen.
Wharton's Robert Hughes explains the moral and social benefits of universal health care and how such a system might look in the U.S.
- Public Policy
Wharton’s Robert Hughes speaks with Wharton Business Daily on SiriusXM about the need for universal health care in the U.S.
Nothing quite exposes the inequalities that exist in American society more than the health care system. It’s a complex combination of private insurance, public programs and politics that drives up costs, creating significant barriers to lifesaving medical treatment for large segments of the population. In America, access to quality health care often depends on income, employment and status.
Why Should Healthcare Be Free?
Robert Hughes, professor of business ethics and legal studies at Wharton, is an advocate for universal health care coverage. Drawing deeply on his research in philosophy, Hughes believes that equal access to medical care is beneficial for both liberty and social stability. Health, he says, should not be tied to wealth.
“I think it’s very disturbing that people have to go to GoFundMe in order to get their medical treatments paid for. It creates a power imbalance,” he said, referring to the crowdsourcing platform used to help raise money for patient bills. “That’s why I say that truly universal health care would be good for people’s liberty. Because you’re not really free if you’re depending on charity, especially discretionary charity like the kind you see on GoFundMe, for a basic need like health care.”
Hughes recently joined the Wharton Business Daily radio show on SiriusXM to discuss universal health care in the context of the presidential election. (Listen to the podcast at the top of this page.) President-elect Joe Biden has said he will protect and rebuild the Affordable Care Act , which has been under attack since it was enacted in 2010 under President Barack Obama.
Does the U.S. Hhave Universal Healthcare Now That Obamacare Exists?
The ACA, commonly referred to as Obamacare, brought the U.S. closer to providing universal health care through subsidized private health insurance, but Hughes said there’s still a wide gap. He believes policymakers should ensure that everyone has coverage and access to the same needed treatments.
“It’s very disturbing that people have to go to GoFundMe in order to get their medical treatments paid for. It creates a power imbalance.”
“I think it’s totally feasible for us to change the health care system, if we all were willing to do the right thing. But we’re not all willing to do the right thing,” Hughes said.
The professor argued the case for universal health care in a paper titled “ Egalitarian Provision of Necessary Medical Treatment ,” which was published last year in the Journal of Ethics. (The author-accepted version is here .) He examined the health care systems of the U.K., Australia and Canada, concluding that Canada’s single-payer system is the most advantageous for the U.S.
Private insurance would still exist under such a setup, but it could not be used to pay for treatments already covered under universal health care. This provision would eliminate wealth as the controlling factor in health.
Why Doesn’t the U.S. Have Free Healthcare?
“I don’t understand why there’s so much resistance to the idea of truly universal health insurance in the United States, given that this is something that other industrial countries just do,” Hughes said.
He acknowledged that the U.S. doesn’t have the “political will” to change a system that’s been entrenched since the end of World War II, when employers began offering health insurance to their workers instead of higher wages.
“We can’t wave a magic wand and go back to 1946,” he said. “I don’t see the United States completely uprooting all these insurances. And that means we might need to create a model that keeps a lot of what we have, making it more accessible to more people, rather than creating all new institutions from scratch.”
Knowledge at Wharton interviewed Hughes in 2019 about his paper. For an in-depth look into his research and advocacy, read the interview here .
More From Knowledge at Wharton
From Amazon to Uber: Why Platform Accountability Requires a Holistic Approach
Should ESG Be Politicized? Why ESG Has Become an Easy Target
How Social Insurance Drives Credit Card Debt
Looking for more insights.
Sign up to stay informed about our latest article releases.
Home — Essay Samples — Government & Politics — Public Policy — Argumentative Essay Should Health Care Be Free
Argumentative Essay Should Health Care Be Free
- Categories: Public Policy
About this sample
Words: 520 |
Published: Mar 5, 2024
Words: 520 | Page: 1 | 3 min read
Cite this Essay
Let us write you an essay from scratch
- 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
- Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours
Get high-quality help
Dr. Karlyna PhD
Verified writer
- Expert in: Government & Politics
+ 120 experts online
By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email
No need to pay just yet!
Related Essays
8 pages / 3815 words
3 pages / 1532 words
3 pages / 1372 words
3 pages / 1241 words
Remember! This is just a sample.
You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.
121 writers online
Still can’t find what you need?
Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled
Related Essays on Public Policy
In today's fast-paced and competitive society, the pursuit of happiness has become a central focus for many individuals. The documentary "Happy" explores the different factors that contribute to human happiness and provides [...]
Public policy plays a crucial role in managing the delicate balance between development and environmental preservation. As cities around the world grapple with the challenges of urbanization, policymakers face the daunting task [...]
Policy is a relatively stable, purposive course of action or inaction followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or matter of concern (Anderson). Based on the definition given public policy basically means [...]
In the recent years, the conversations of gun violence are increasing dramatically because of some homicide cases. Truly, the gun violence has been the one of biggest elements which threat both personal safety and national [...]
Income inequality has been on the rise in recent years, Carmen Reinicke of CNBC found that the top one percent of earners in the United States took home an average of 26.3 times more than the bottom 99% of earners in 2015, which [...]
What Caused the Clash Between Communism and Capitalism During the Cold War? The cold war was essentially a clash between two different ideologies: Communism and Capitalism. In Capitalistic Economy the free market determines [...]
Related Topics
By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.
Where do you want us to send this sample?
By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.
Be careful. This essay is not unique
This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before
Download this Sample
Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts
Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.
Please check your inbox.
We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!
Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!
We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .
- Instructions Followed To The Letter
- Deadlines Met At Every Stage
- Unique And Plagiarism Free
Home / Essay Samples / Health / Health Care Policy / Healthcare: a Right or a Privilege
Healthcare: a Right or a Privilege
- Category: Government , Health
- Topic: Affordable Care Act , Health Care Policy , Medicare
Pages: 2 (967 words)
- Downloads: -->
--> ⚠️ Remember: This essay was written and uploaded by an--> click here.
Found a great essay sample but want a unique one?
are ready to help you with your essay
You won’t be charged yet!
Assisted Suicide Essays
Gambling Addiction Essays
Alcohol Abuse Essays
Drug Addiction Essays
Underage Drinking Essays
Related Essays
We are glad that you like it, but you cannot copy from our website. Just insert your email and this sample will be sent to you.
By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.
Your essay sample has been sent.
In fact, there is a way to get an original essay! Turn to our writers and order a plagiarism-free paper.
samplius.com uses cookies to offer you the best service possible.By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .--> -->