Discussion 2

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School

University Of Arizona *

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421

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Medicine

Date

Apr 3, 2024

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Uploaded by katevisser

Do you think that access to healthcare is a right or a privilege? Support your argument. Identify and refute counterarguments. Be sure to deepen your analysis - don't just answer whether you think access to healthcare should be a right or privilege, but how does this play out in reality? You can discuss this in the American context, in the global context, or as a combination thereof. Pull in readings, videos, and lectures from this week's content. Additionally, do your own research to fully address this prompt. When The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in 2014, there was a debate brought up whether healthcare should be considered a privilege or a right. Some argue that it would be too expensive to provide healthcare to every single citizen, some argue that healthy citizens should not have to pay for other citizens’ healthcare, while other arguments are that healthcare should not be tied to one’s job. All these arguments do have validity; however, I do firmly believe that healthcare should be a right that every single US citizen should have access to. Not only should every citizen have access to healthcare but should have the right to accessible and affordable healthcare. While some argue that it would be too to expand Medicaid coverage to meet the ACA guidelines, the US is already the largest spender in healthcare per capita in the world (Ridic et al., 2012). Studies have shown that low-income adults living in states with Medicaid expansions were “significantly associated with reduced mortality as well as improved coverage, access to care, and self-reported health, proving that while expansion of Medicaid is expensive, it is beneficial to the overall health of the state’s population (Sommers et al., 2012). Having preventive care that is accessible and affordable to low-income adults ensures that the most vulnerable of a state or country’s population stays healthy, which will reduce the financial strain on the states for those who would be uninsured (if not for Medicaid) using healthcare services (Sommers et al., 2012). Another concern brought up if the US provides healthcare for all its citizens are long wait times to see specialists, a decrease in quality healthcare, and an increased dissatisfaction in healthcare and healthcare providers. However, citizens in the US are already dissatisfied with the current privatized system and some already must wait weeks or months to see a specialist depending on their employer-provided health insurance plan. One study compared the healthcare system of three highly industrialized countries: The US, Canada, and Germany; looking at overall satisfaction, future changes and improvements, financing, and government centralization. While the US did have shorter wait times, Americans were by far the most dissatisfied with their healthcare system than Canadians or Germans (Ridic et al., 2012). Comparatively, both Canada and Germany spend less on healthcare per capita while also having more satisfied citizens with their overall healthcare system (Ridic et al., 2012). In addition to overall satisfaction, both German and Canadian citizens “ have longer life expectancies and lower infant mortality rates than do US residents”, and even with universal healthcare, Germany has found a way to avoid long queue times for citizens while

Canada has seemingly more services and superior health status to Americans (Ridic et al., 2012). Lastly, while no healthcare system is perfect, with how many federal and state services the US offers its citizens, why shouldn’t healthcare be one of them (Bauchner, 2017). References: Bauchner, H. (2017). Health Care in the United States: A right or a privilege. JAMA , 317 (1), 29. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.19687 Ridic, G., Gleason, S., & Ridic, O. (2012). Comparisons of health care systems in the United States, Germany and Canada. Materia socio-medica , 24 (2), 112–120. https://doi.org/10.5455/msm.2012.24.112-120 Sommers, B. D., Baicker, K., & Epstein, A. M. (2012, September 13). Mortality and Access to Care among Adults after State Medicaid Expansions . The New England Journal of Medicine. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1202099

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Discussion 2

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