The right to healthcare in America: debates, crises, and reform

rights for U.S. citizens to have health care

The Rights of U.S. Citizens to Health Care

The right to health care

The concept -- the right to health care as a notion was developed within the United States in the context of the current health care situation. It is primarily focused on "attempts to resolve the crisis of escalating health care costs and the increasing racial disparities and generally failing accessibility of health care" (The Right to Health Care Forum).

The right debate -- while some parties argue that health care is a basic human right, others argue that it is not a right in fact. The first set of arguments is based on the understanding of human rights as the necessity to provide every individual with living standards that safeguard health and life (National Health Care for the Homeless Council). The second set of arguments is constructed on the premises that the United States Constitution only states life, freedom, properties and the pursuit of happiness as human rights. "According to the Founding Fathers, we are not born with a right to a trip to Disneyland, or a meal at McDonald's, or a kidney dialysis" (Peikoff).

Despite the technicality of the dispute, fact remains that most Americans perceive health care as a right. They are as such extremely disappointed at the current situation and their fears are deepened by the occurrence of the financial crisis.

2. Health care demand in times of crisis

Today's buzzword is that of economic crisis, referring to the credit crunch which dragged down the real estate sector and then expanded throughout the rest of economic sectors. Interestingly enough, public services were also impacted. Larger portions of state budgets were being allocated to salvage financial institutions, automobile manufacturers, or other pillars of the private economy.

This translates into the fact that public services are allocated fewer resources and that the quality of medical care, education and others similar gradually decreases. In times of crisis, even the demand for medical care services declines as people prefer to work harder and protect their jobs in the detriment of their own health. Medical services are now mostly required by the aging baby boomers -- which place an incremental pressure on the financial stability of the medical sector, and by the chronically ill.

4. Current status of health care in the United States

Depending on the angle from which the issue is assessed, one identifies sources of both praises as well as complaints relative to the current state of the health care system in today's America.

Pluses:

High level of privatization as most companies offering health care insurance are private

The U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world, meaning that the country spends most money on the health of its people; this is true in cases of both expenditure per capita as well as percentage from the gross domestic product (The Division of Lifelong Learning at the University of Maine)

Minuses:

47 million citizens in the United States are currently uninsured and their number is continuously growing; 8.7 million of the completely uninsured are children

The current legislation allows organizations to move the cost of health care to the employees, who unfortunately cannot afford these expenditures

More than 40 million people relay on the public Medicare support, but the Bush administration commenced a process of privatization of Medicare (AFL-CIO, 2009)

International comparison -- in a study conducted on the 14 most developed countries (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States), the results for the American health care pointed out that, despite the massive costs:

The infant mortality rate remains the highest from the group

The life expectancy of the people with disabilities is the second lowest among the group

Only 40 per cent of the population is satisfied with the quality of the health care system; this places the United States on the last but one position (The Division of Lifelong Learning at the University of Maine)

5. Solutions

Given the complexity of the problem, it becomes obvious that the solution has to be tailored so that it solves the root causes at the core of the health care situation. In this order of ideas, it is necessary for the health care reform to focus on at least the following:

Force employers to cover their share of the employees' medical insurance

Ensure state medical coverage for all children

Cease the privatization of the Medicare program

Invest in the human resource at hospitals to increase their levels of performance

Offer subsidies to reduce the retail price of prescription medicines (AFL-CIO)

6. Conclusions

There is an ongoing dispute relative to the quality of health care as a basic human right; people believe however that health care is a right

The U.S. health care system is the most expensive one at a global level, but the costs are not justifiable in terms of quality of health care, access to medical services or overall health of the population

At a global level, the U.S. health care system is situated at the bottom of the leading countries

The solution to resolving the current issues is a complex one and denotes the necessity for a reform to be simultaneously implemented on several channels.

References:

Peikoff, L., Health Care Is Not A Right, Beckemeyer Development History, http://www.bdt.com/pages/Peikoff.html last accessed on December 3, 2009

2009, What's Wrong with America's Health Care, AFL-CIO, http://www.aflcio.org/issues/health care/whatswrong / last accessed on December 3, 2009

The Obama Plan, Organizing for America, The Official Barack Obama Website, http://www.barackobama.com/issues/health care / last accessed on December 3, 2009

The U.S. Health Care System -- Best in the World, or Just the Most Expensive? The Division of Lifelong Learning at the University of Maine, http://dll.umaine.edu/ble/U.S.%20HCweb.pdf last accessed on December 3, 2009

Human Rights, Homelessness and Health Care, National Health Care for the Homeless Council, http://www.nhchc.org/humanright.html last accessed on December 3, 2009

The Right to Health Care Forum, http://www.righttohealthcare.org / last accessed on December 3, 2009