Advantages and Disadvantages of Universal and Private Health Care

Health care is conventionally considered as an important determinate in encouraging the overall physical and psychological health and wellbeing of people in the globe. One example of this was the global destruction of smallpox in 1980, announced by those who as the first illness in human history to be totally eradicated by deliberate health care interventions. This transfer of contemporary health care depends on groups of educated professionals and paraprofessionals getting together as interdisciplinary teams. That include master’s in medicine, science, therapy, health care, dentistry, medicine and allied health, along with numerous others, e.g., national health practitioners, district welfare workers and assistive personnel who systematically provide personal and population-based preventive, curative and rehabilitative care services.

Private health care is medicine or hospitals/clinics that are not supported by the government. The private sector is made up of hospitals and clinics which are run by charities or not for profit organizations. The united states are mainly a private health care economy. Private insurance doesn’t have to be the only option people have, but in the united states it’s the only option that is guaranteed to help you and treat you to the best of their abilities. The private hospitals give patients a choice in what kind of treatments they would like to get but also pay for them out of pocket. They also have a choice in which doctor is able to treat them but also, they have a choice of when they want to be seen in the private hospitals, but they also get several privileges not like normal patients. They have no restrictions on visiting hours, and they get to choose what kind of rooms they get into. Private hospitals give good quality, but they are also very expensive qualities. Most people in the United States can’t afford such luxuries but the socialized sector also can’t handle the pressure that comes with universal health care which has risen multiple controversies about the health care system in the United States.

Universal health care or also known as public hospital is a hospital which is owned by the government and or receives its funding through the government. Like most government funded places, it’s not the best quality and it operates as best as it can but on more occasions than one it falls short. The government funded hospital gives out free care with no charges and the government covers it. Government health care is available to all at any time despite how bad the service can be. The U.S census bureau recorded 28.1 million American without health insurance in the year of 2016. Though bad, it was a decline from the 46.6 million who had been uninsured prior to the implementation of the affordable care act which was passed in 2010. Uninsured people in the united states are mostly immigrants but they are not any Canadians who are uninsured because their government provides universal health care. Most countries in the world provide universal health care like Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and many more other countries. Other countries are close to Universal coverage and they are working on getting to that full coverage. People want universal coverage even with all that it comes with. They want the good, the bad and the ugly, all in all they want to be taken care of.This why this issue is even a bigger debate on why the United states doesn’t provide health care.

Universal health care is a necessity no matter what they offer whether good or bad. Their services are bad because they do a “first come first serve rule” which could be really bad with some patients who will sometimes be in more severe conditions than those who showed up first. So those with a severe condition they get worse as they wait to be treated when they could potentially die because of the first come first serve rule. Socialized health care makes healthy people pay for the sickest through taxes. People have less financial incentive to stay health and also there is added to stress to the government which cause the government to limit services that have a low probability of success. All those disadvantages come with some advantages too. Socialized or universal health care lowers overall health care costs and administrative costs. It creates a healthier workforce and prevents future social costs. It standardizes service and guides people to make healthier choices. These kinds of conditions make health care a privilege instead of a right.

The debate of health care being a right or privilege has been going on for a longtime and it is still not settled. People want this settled and both of these paths have supporters.  The declaration of the Unites states says, “All men have unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This refers to life and the right to be treated but it does specifically state that they have a right to health care. The U.S constitution also supports this right because it says, “promote the general welfare of the people.” General welfare includes the right to health care, and it is a government issue. A tight to health care should not be a debate because it could save more lives than people know.  “Lack of health insurance is associated with as many as 44,789 deaths per year,” according to a study from Harvard researchers. This study shows that there is a 40% increased risk of death among the uninsured. Those numbers could go down if health care was a right. More than 13,000 deaths occur each year just in the 55-64-year-old age group according to another study. This is all due to lack of insurance coverage because only those who do well for themselves can afford it. We already have free public services to citizens of the United States like public road maintenance, public law enforcement, and free public education. These services all show that the government cares about the society and that they will do anything to ensure a just system and to fulfill the pursuit of happiness in the U.S constitution. So, why is health not a right but a privilege. “Health care preserves for people the ability to participate in the political, social, and economic life of society. It sustains them as fully participating citizens,” according to Norman Daniels, PhD, Professor of ethics and population Health at Harvard University. Several genius people have told us what to do and why it is so important for health care to be a right not a privilege yet we as a nation are not doing anything about it.

The universal and private health care debate shouldn’t be an either-or debate. Private health care does not have to disappear so we can have universal health care. It should be an option to those who can afford it. Universal health care should be available to everyone else. Private health care is great, and it should not be taken away from those who can afford it, but universal care should always be available. There people in our country who go sick and sometimes die because they cannot afford the health care they need. Life is not an either-or question; a healthy life is even a more question that should be answered with help of those we appoint in higher places to protect us and take care of us. They take care of everything else that’s not so important at the time, yet they fail at making decisions that are good for us and our nation.

In conclusion, I personally belie in the right for everyone to have health care. It should not be a privilege for people to get treated and taken care of. It’s a human right to have medicine and a hospital to go to just like people get free education. If I was a doctor, I would feel morally wrong if the only people I treated and cared for were those who could afford it. I personally think that our government is wrong in not providing health care for all. Yes, there is disadvantages and advantages to universal health care but there is advantages and disadvantages to every single thing in this world but the numbers of the people we lose due to the lack of universal health care is too much to not reconsider and change. We have a choice and that choice is whether we want to save people or let them suffer and die.

Reference:

• “Pros & Cons - ProCon.org.” Right to Health Care, healthcare.procon.org/.
• Montgomery, Kelly. “Difference Between Universal Coverage and a Single-Payer System.” Very well Health, Very well Health, 22 Feb. 2020, www.verywellhealth.com/difference-between-universal-coverage-and-single-payer-system-1738546.
• HHS Office, and Public Affairs. “About the ACA.” HHS.gov, US Department of Health and Human Services, 23 Oct. 2019, www.hhs.gov/healthcare/about-the-aca/index.html.