Koda (R Miller) Blair PHIL-105 Universal Healthcare
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Universal Healthcare: Helpful or Not
Koda (R. Miller) Blair
College of Education, Grand Canyon university
PHIL-105:
21st Century Skills: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Turk Ciftcikara
03/05/2023
Universal Healthcare: Helpful or Not
Over 28 million adults in the U.S. have no health insurance due to the unaffordable prices
and the lack of coverage in health plans (Galvani et al., 2022). According to research done by Galvani and co. (2022) a vast majority of Americans cannot afford health insurance even though America's government spends more money on its healthcare system. The study also showed that most Americans depend on employment-granted insurance for their health problems. This leaves
those that struggle with chronic illnesses or any physical or mental disability to fight for their rights to healthcare. In fact, another study done by Kabbi et al. (2022) shows that the system America follows is so flawed that it leaves people to die and allows insurance companies to label
a doctor's recommendation as unimportant to the patient. This alone leads to thousands of deaths in this country (Galvani et al., 2022); other countries are healthier and thriving with government insurance as the norm (Kabbi et al., 2022). Universal healthcare should be a human right because
people should not go bankrupt for being sick, it would help make diseases and deaths preventable, and with current technology, it should be a right, not a privilege.
In a country with the largest healthcare budget in the world (Galvani et al., 2022), people of the United States should not be going bankrupt simply for being sick. In fact, Because of the risk of bankruptcy in the states, many citizens will refuse to see the doctor simply to save money.
The United States healthcare system comes out to be one of the most significant portions of what
people spend their money on in the United States (Kumar et al., 2011). The United States healthcare system is the most expensive in the world and covers the least amount of health benefits ranking the system 72nd in overall health in the world (Kumar et al., 2011). Causing the States to be the only 'first world country' to be scored below other countries the government considers lesser. How the healthcare system in the U.S. works causes more infant mortalities,
lowers disability life expectancy, and lowers the ability of those without insurance to be helped. It leads them to dying earlier and getting sicker easier (Kumar et al., 2011). This is a heartbreaking but actual fact, especially among the POC population in the states. The United States is one of the only countries that refuse to grant their people universal healthcare, including
countries that the U.S. citizens may see as 2nd world. Ultimately, the U.S. adopting a universal healthcare plan would help stop preventable deaths and illnesses.
Universal healthcare will allow the people of the United States to receive proper treatment for treatable illnesses and prevent preventable deaths. According to a study by Deepa and Anuradha (2021), when the universal healthcare system was established in India, people could receive real help and diagnosis for preventable illnesses. They both also make a point to state that the country's taxes raised were almost unnoticeable, showing that a government health program will not cause money to get worse. Meanwhile, during the Covid-19 pandemic alone, there were 2.8 million uninsured Americans in the United States because they could not afford insurance on top of losing their job and work insurance (Galvani et al., 2022). There are 32 countries with universal healthcare, according to the NY.gov article "Foreign Countries and Universal Healthcare" (2011), including places such as Kuwait, which many deem as a third-
world country. The United States healthcare system is built to make the rich richer and to keep the poor down, allowing there to be stockholders for health insurance, making it a privilege to receive healthcare when it should be a right.
The United States is built on a fend-for-yourself system, which causes healthcare to become a privilege for those with money when it should be a right for all. It is known to many that the for-profit system is built and driven by a business culture instead of an actual healthcare
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culture (Kabbi et al., 2022). This causes health insurance companies to make decisions based on their stockholders rather than the health of their customers. Universal healthcare is not always free in 32 countries; however, it aims to create a more affordable and accessible health system (Kabbi et al., 2022). This is also a route the states could take if people were so worried about the country's funds. The for-profit system built in the United States creates an unfair gap in coverage for people who make a different wage, whereas universal healthcare is equal to all (Kabbi et al., 2022). With the research showing that the only ones who would be hurt by universal healthcare are wealthy, there are very few reasons not to implement this system in the states.
People should not go bankrupt or die of treatable illnesses in a world filled with proper technologies, and the healthcare system should not be built to benefit the already wealthy. Some people in the United States will make statements like Kabbi et al. (2022) was told while doing their research, stating, "the burden of others should not be on me." They question whether the people of a country should pay more if they do not use the health system as much as those with illnesses. However, if the country looked at articles like the one written by Deepa and Anuradha (2021), they would see that the happiness of countries such as India goes up and encourages their
people. So many times, on the news, especially during the pandemic, views saw death tolls rise over treatable problems. In a world built on technology, there should not be a first-world country that does not have healthy citizens. The news can blame it on obesity or laziness, but the average American spent over 70K in medical bills between 2007 and 2017 (Kumar et al., 2011). In a country that claims to be number one in everything, it is gut-wrenching that healthcare is where people do not care if we fall short.
References
Deepa, E., & Anuradha, S. V. (2021). Healthy Nation, A Wealthy Nation - Importance of Universal Healthcare in India.
Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry
,
12
(8), 5982–5986.
“Foreign Countries with Universal Health Care.” Ny.gov
, 2011, www.health.ny.gov/regulations/hcra/univ_hlth_care.htm
. Accessed 4 Feb. 2023.
Galvani, A. P., Parpia, A. S., Pandey, A., Sah, P., Colón, K., Friedman, G., Campbell, T., Kahn, J. G., Singer, B. H., & Fitzpatrick, M. C. (2022). Universal healthcare as pandemic preparedness: The lives and costs that could have been saved during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
,
119
(25), e2200536119. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1073/pnas.2200536119
KAABI, S. A. L., VARUGHESE, B., & SINGH, R. (2022). Public and Private Healthcare System in Terms of both Quality and Cost: A Review.
Journal of Clinical & Diagnostic Research
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16
(8), 1–8. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.7860/JCDR/2022/55387.16742
Kumar, S., Ghildayal, N. S., & Shah, R. N. (2011). Examining quality and efficiency of the US healthcare system. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 24(5), 366–388. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1108/09526861111139197